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After five grueling hours of impassioned discussion, the council meeting had ended. Administrator Lindy Harlaown was eternally grateful—the session had been much more stressful than she had anticipated. She felt utterly drained; the Council was like a massive family of bickering children.

And the bomb she dropped upon them had resulted in absolute bedlam.

Of course, the Administrative Council had long known about Non-Administrated World #97's... unique status. The Administration had displayed no real interest, other than attempting to dig up any dirt they could use as leverage to exert more control over the Bureau.

Now, however... with the mission logs and most of the sensor data Tizona had picked up on Earth, the Administration was more than intrigued. Inducting a backwater world with technology vastly inferior to that of the larger IAFW, and one with no understanding of magic at all was not an attractive prospect.

But the Earthlings, this Unit Epsilon in particular, had not only managed to learn enough to understand the importance of the Linker Core, but had managed to modify and utilize bits and pieces of scavenged Bureau Device technology... in ways the Bureau had not already devised.

It was the only sort of impetus that would have prompted the Council into action—the prospect of gaining a significant technological advantage over other space-faring civilizations.

And action they had taken. The Council had ordered Lindy to directly brief TSAB Command and Ground Forces Command in a massive meeting-of-the-minds, with the goal of drawing up the necessary strategic and diplomatic plans. The IAFW wanted Earth to become a member-nation within the next year. It was ridiculously fast, absolutely insane—there would be no chance that the negotiations, even if they were smooth as oiled glass, would be over in a mere year.

Lindy smiled exhaustedly. She would worry about that later. The bomb had done its job, distracting the Council from the issues more close to home—not once was NSIS mentioned in the proceedings, and Celica Iris-Lynnfield was as good as forgotten. The memories of politicians were short indeed.

“Madame Administrator,” a male voice said suddenly, breaking Lindy from her own private thoughts. “There is a priority message for you from Admiral Harlaown on an encrypted channel. Do you wish to take it in your office?”

Lindy turned to the small holographic communications display that had materialized near her and nodded to her aide. “I'll be returning shortly.”

“Certainly, Madame Administrator.”

The ship's captain turned politician stood up and stretched her weary muscles, hearing a number of small pops as joints shifted and pressure was relieved.

I'm too young to be creaking and cracking like this, Lindy thought wryly. She walked through the back entrance of the Council chamber, her aide following closely behind. The short trip to the staff car was quiet and uneventful.

Lindy leaned back in the richly-upholstered seat as the aide started the car and drove off, heading to the Ground Forces HQ. It was not the seat of the Midchildan government, of course—Lindy was a representative to the IAFW for the Bureau, not for Midchilda itself.

Her position could be described as between a rock and a hard place. Lindy was a former military officer, now retired, working essentially to represent the only member of the IAFW who neither had a world of its own nor was actually a true member.

If the council meeting was indicative of anything, Lindy hoped, it would be that the Bureau and the IAFW would maintain the status quo. The TSAB's status as a neutral, quasi-independent agency prevented a host of problems, but she couldn't blame the larger government from wanting direct control. The bulk of the current administrators were in favor of a stronger central government, and the TSAB's independence was one of the many things they wished to rectify.

The Iris-Lynnfield incident both nearly gave the store away, and solidified the Bureau's position and the status quo, Lindy thought, her lips curving upward in grim amusement at the irony.

---

“What is it, Chrono?” Lindy asked, staring intently at the image of her son, projected on a small holographic display suspended before her.

The visage of Admiral Harlaown looked haggard and exhausted, but there was a sparkle in his eyes that the elder Harlaown picked up on immediately.

“I've received the minutes from the Council meeting,” Chrono began. “It appears as if your ploy worked. Perhaps a bit too well.”

“I don't like the sound of that.”

“You won't like the sound of this even more,” Chrono said somberly. “After Agent Alphine returned with Tizona and the data on Unit Epsilon, I sent another agent to keep an eye on them. She just returned today with troubling news.”

“Uh-oh,” Lindy murmured. “What happened?”

“I haven't had the chance to fully debrief her yet, but the agent reported that Unit Epsilon has somehow predicted your move. They discovered that we're making a public and official push for first contact. It didn't take them long to initiate damage control protocols. Most of the data the organization held has been destroyed.”

“We don't know yet,” Chrono said honestly, “but the fact that they were able to detect the increased long-range sensor probe activity is troubling. According to my agent, they also learned that the Shiva is hiding behind Earth's moon.”

“Not hiding so well, it seems. Do you have any good news for me?” Lindy wanted to know.

“Actually, that's why I called,” Chrono replied. “It was too late for my agent to take any research data—most of it had already been erased at that point. But she did one better—she brought back the organization's principal researcher!”

“Where are they?” Lindy demanded, leaning forward in her excitement. The capture of such a person put the Bureau a step ahead in the long process of inducting Earth as a member-world. While the experimental data may have been lost, Chrono and his Shadows would be able to extract a significant amount of information from the woman.

“They're in transit to Midchilda,” said Chrono quickly. “When my agent contacted me, I diverted the NSIS spy ship Thanatos to the Sol system. We should have both at NSIS headquarters within the next eight hours.”

“Let's not jump to conclusions just yet,” Chrono said testily. “We don't know what Dr. Vance knows. The organization was heavily compartmentalized, according to my agent.”

“Any information is better than none at all,” Lindy said gratefully. “Do your best, Chrono. I'll be expecting a full report and transcript of the debriefing and the interrogation.”

“That goes without saying,” Chrono replied. Then his voice softened, “The kids and Amy send their love. They would like to see more of their grandmother.”

“I'm sure,” Lindy muttered self-consciously, “and I'm also sure they'd like to see more of their father, as well.”

Both mother and son grimaced at the thought. Both were highly-placed within the Bureau's command structure and both had incredibly busy jobs that took vast amounts of time away from their personal and family lives.

“When this incident is all wrapped up, you, the kids, Fate and I all ought to take a vacation together. Go to some far-away garden world and forget about the Bureau and the Shadows for a few weeks.”

“I'd like that,” Chrono said, disconnecting the communications link.

Lindy sighed and leaned back in her overstuffed executive chair, a contented smile on her face. The capture of Unit Epsilon's head researcher was a great boon—Lindy was sure that much could be learned from the woman.

I'm sure the Device Meisters will want to pick her brain, as well, she mused silently, rubbing her forehead gently. She felt drained and exhausted, but ultimately satisfied.

---

The Factory
Tau-38c, Tau-38
(Non-Administrated World #771)
09.02.0088

Thomas Hayes blinked his eyes groggily, waiting for them to regain focus. His head throbbed intensely—the end result of being hit by an explosive blast of magical force. He looked up to see the stern visage of Abraham Stele.

“You're not dead,” the Belkan knight rumbled.

“What happened? I was knocked out—”

“Iris-Lynnfield is loose somewhere within the Factory,” Stele said coolly. “I am not sure where. All of our local forces are combing the ship, attempting to locate her. We do not believe she escaped onto the planetary surface.”

“The Precursor Artifact has been activated already,” Hayes said. “We've already won. Who cares if she escapes? We have much more important things to worry about than chasing her down.”

“Don't underestimate Iris-Lynnfield,” Stele warned. “Escape is not her goal. We may have succeeded in your plan to manipulate her into activating the artifact for us, but she can still do substantial damage if we leave her be.”

“She can't destroy the Al'hazred core,” said Hayes dismissively. “She has irreversibly converted to the Al'hazred system—the device is completely immune to any magic she directs at it.”

“No, but she can damage other systems,” Stele snapped impatiently. “This is not your area of expertise, Admiral. Please allow me to handle this.”

“What is the status of the Linker Core augmentation chambers?”

“They are fully operational and are functioning flawlessly,” Stele said with obvious satisfaction. Hayes did not miss the inference. The old man stared at his subordinate, shock evident on his face.

“They hadn't even been tested yet, you fool! What if they had malfunctioned and you had died?”

“I have waited far too long for this,” Stele said simply. “The system performs exactly as expected.”

Hayes was no mage, but he took the huge knight at his word. It was not for Stele's safety that Hayes was so concerned, however. The big warrior was already prodigiously powerful—after having used the Al'hazred augmentation process, there was no telling how powerful he truly was.

Perhaps I am now gazing upon the most powerful mage who has ever lived, he mused thoughtfully. This begets a question: what exactly does he plan to do with this power?

Hayes didn't understand. To his political mind, power was a means to an end. Money or influence or magic led to power, and power led to influence and control. The turncoat admiral did not believe Stele wanted either influence or control—the fact that he was still breathing was testament to that.

What Stele truly wanted was to be the strongest.

---

Celica smiled slightly as the door leading to the Factory's main reactor slid open without a sound. So far, she had not encountered much in the way of resistance, but the fighting had been fierce. The red-haired mage was not the most accurate shot with a linear rifle—firing such a weapon was vastly different than mentally manipulating the trajectories of magical bullets.

“It's not as easy as the Mid propaganda makes it out to be,” Celica muttered aloud in the empty reactor control room. Beyond the thick triple-paned, reinforced glass stood the ship's power core—like most technology based upon the force colloquially known as “magic,” the reactor itself was essentially a gigantic artificial Linker Core.

This one pulsed dimly, as if the system wasn't fully operational. Celica figured that was the case—after all, the ship had been heavily damaged when it crashed on this rock eons ago. The rogue faction didn't have the resources or the time to get it functional—all of their efforts had been focused on repairing the augmentation facility.

Celica walked up to the only remaining functional terminal and frowned slightly. Of course, the thing was secured, and it appeared as if the rogue faction had repaired this one in such a way that it used Mid-type protocols.

“They couldn't have made this easier for me, could they?”

The telltale hexagonal magical circle blazed into being beneath Celica's feet as she activated a meta spell.

“Seal Erase,” Celica said, watching as the magical ward flared brightly once and then faded away, leaving the computer unprotected save for its digital protections. Glancing back at the door, Celica sat down at the unoccupied chair and began rapidly entering commands into the system.

“Been a while since I've done this without Tizona backing me up,” she muttered idly as she attacked the security from three different fronts. While simultaneously running the decoy attacks, she cast another spell.

“System Scan.”

Celica smiled as a holographic display materialized beside the existing monitors and displayed the results of her scan. There—the attacks had done their job, keeping the terminal's partial AI processor busy while she extracted the proper passwords.

Returning to the system prompt, Celica entered in the recovered password. The command prompt symbol changed—she had root access to the system and could shut down the reactor core with the push of a button.

She did so. The luminous, suspended orb of the ship's primary power source flickered brilliantly for a split second, and then began to slowly fade. The harsh lighting in the reactor control room winked out, plunging Celica into absolute blackness for a long moment before the safeties kicked in and auxiliary power took over. The room was bathed in a dim yellow light.

Now, to put her own locks into place. Celica, armed with root access and the complete control over the entire power control network, began to change passwords, delete links, erase important system files, ensuring that any attempt to re-initialize the reactor would be a slow and painful one.

She wasn't quite finished. Celica cast one more spell—this time, not a meta spell designed to manipulate existing magic, but a physically destructive spell designed to sabotage. A bright blue flash of overloading energy surged through the adjacent terminals, destroying the connection to the hub. The terminal's holographic displays filled with snow and winked out of existence an instant later.

“There's no way anyone will be able to get this up and running again without rebuilding the system from scratch,” she said with some degree of satisfaction.

The auxiliary power would not last for long, and the AMF would fall once it expired. Stele, or any of the other mages, would be able to find her easily after that. The situation looked bleak, yet she had made sure the rogue faction would not be able to use the augmentation lab until they rebuilt the entire power control network and brought the reactor back online.

A blue-white hexagonal magic circle materialized beneath her feet as she cast a spell, establishing a virtual emergency beacon. She was much too far away to reach any known contacts, but if any Navy patrol ships were within a few dozen light-years, they would hear it.

“You didn't have to come to the Thanatos, Admiral,” Cinque said, somewhat surprised. “I could have easily transported the item to HQ on my own.”

“There are important reasons why I do not wish to have this conversation at the NSIS building,” Chrono muttered, gesturing with a tray of food and drink from the ship's galley. “The Council knows too much as it is. I cannot risk any additional leaks.”

“Understood, sir,” the woman said smartly, saluting with razor-edge efficiency. Chrono waved at her dismissively and opened the sealed door, entering the Thanatos brig alone.

A middle-aged, plain-looking woman sat at the only available chair. She looked miserable and frightened, yet there was something else about her...

Wonder. Astonishment, Chrono thought with mild surprise. Her eyes were wide and her expression was that of one who had seen an entire army of ghosts. The director of NSIS sat down in the chair across from the table and slid the tray of food and drink over to the thunderstruck woman.

“You should eat something,” Chrono said softly.

“How is it that you speak our language?” Dr. Vance asked immediately, ignoring the food.

“We don't,” Chrono replied. “Universal translators are standard-issue for the Bureau's Naval Forces. You should know at least that much by now.”

“Never found anything like that,” she muttered, taking a sip from her drink. She found it to be remarkably similar to an obscure brand of fruit-flavored soft drink on Earth. “We only found broken and partially-functional pieces. Enough to observe the effects, learn and experiment on our own.”

“When did Unit Epsilon first begin?” Chrono demanded.

“Long before I or you were even born,” Lily said softly. “I suspect the organization was first created as a response to finding something you folks left behind. Damaged Devices, bits and pieces of your technology. We didn't know how it worked at first, but when I started working for the unit...”

“The theory was already in place?”

“Correct,” Lily said. “Those who came before me had already figured out how it all worked, they just couldn't duplicate your technology. There's a massive difference in materials science, in processor design. We'd have to basically start from scratch, and the team had stagnated.”

“Until you started working for them,” Chrono reasoned.

“It wasn't just me,” Lily said self-consciously. “It was a joint effort—we were able to construct our own devices with which to access the extradimensional power source. We could use it, but we still don't entirely understand it. Where the energy comes from, and where it goes when the energy state changes. It suggests that our universe is not a closed system—if it were, this would be impossible...”

Chrono nodded, but said nothing. He was no arcanist; he did not pretend to know the theory behind the functional magic he once utilized on a daily basis. He did not stop her, though—she was talking freely and openly. If he was patient, he would soon reap a significant harvest of information.

Chrono turned his attention back to the woman, still nattering on nervously, and did his best to look interested.

---

Twenty minutes later:

Chrono sighed softly as he walked out of the small cabin he had procured for Dr. Vance, sealing the door behind her. It would not do to let the woman have the run of the ship. Not that he suspected she would try anything, of course.

“Am I finished here, Admiral?” Cinque asked, walking up to meet him. The young woman withdrew a small black memory chip from her duster and handed it to the admiral. He knew what it was—data files he had requested during the deposition of Lily Vance—and didn't bother examining it.

“Yes,” Chrono said after a long moment. “With the dissolution of Unit Epsilon, your original mission has been terminated early. Take the rest of the week off. I don't want to see your face around headquarters until Monday.”

“Yes, sir,” Cinque said softly, bowing before walking back down the corridor toward her personal quarters. Chrono sighed and shook his head.

“The least you could do is act excited... at least for my sake,” he complained aloud. Turning his attention back to the larger issue, Chrono sent a mental command to his Device, establishing a long-range voice communications link with Lutecia.

Alphine, give me a status report.

Admiral, we've just arrived on the planet's surface. The derelict vessel is in sight—we're beginning the first phase of the mission, Lutecia's mental voice came back, albeit badly distorted by the distance and local interference.

Good. Bring Hayes in alive if possible. I'd like to speak to him in private.

Understood, Admiral. We're starting the mission now. See you again soon, Lutecia responded, breaking the connection.

Chrono smiled grimly. The renegade Shadows would be stopped. No matter how powerful Stele was, nor how powerful the Factory could have made him, the director of NSIS believed that the issue was no longer in doubt. He held his agents in the highest regard, and he had faith in their abilities. This incident would end in victory.

Teana gasped as she came out of the ultra long-range transfer spell, dizzy and slightly nauseous from the usual bout of transfer sickness...

… into a torrential rainstorm. Water fell from the sky in great sheets, and the wind blew at terrific velocities. Lightning split the pitch-black sky with alarming frequency, filling the air with the faint scent of ozone and illuminating the small, rocky island with cold light.

The entire team had already deployed simple kinetic barriers to keep out the lightning, the wind and the rain. It had been expected—Tau-38c's unusual weather conditions, caused by the planet's tidal lock, were well-anticipated.

The rain poured down, rolling over top the orange-glowing kinetic barrier that surrounded her body, as she took stock of where they were. She was standing rather than swimming; a good sign, as the permanent thunderstorms meant most of the night side was covered in shallow oceans.

The island in question was a small rocky outcropping jutting from the shallow seas of the rain-slashed night side. It was perhaps only a few dozen kilometers square. Long ago, the island had likely been submerged beneath the planet's seas, but changes in Tau-38c's bizarre weather caused a drop in the sea level, exposing the rocky island... and the derelict Al'hazred ship that loomed grimly above the sea.

Teana was shocked to see the silvery-gray metal of the crashed vessel remarkably free of any corrosion or weathering. The material looked as pristine as the day it had come out of dry dock—at least, until Teana's eyes fell over the massive craft's bow.

The entire front of the vessel had been severely damaged by the dimensional disjunction, then completely destroyed in the crash itself. Metal was twisted and rent, blackened and bubbled by extreme heat. From a quick visual scan, Teana could detect that the Al'hazred had designed their craft with the command section toward the stern.

Shadow group, this is Shadow-Lead. Report.

Lead, this is Shadow-One. Standing by for orders, Signum's mental voice came back. Teana waited a few moments longer as Victor, Lutecia and Vivio all checked in with their corresponding callsigns.

The AMF surrounding the derelict vessel prevents any direct scans, Lutecia said abruptly.

We need to know what we're up against. Shadow-Two, do your insects function within an AMF? Teana queried.

I'm sorry, but this AMF is far too strong, replied Lutecia grimly. They'll stop functioning before they even get within two meters of the hull. We've got no choice but to go in blind.

Understood. Shadow-One, find a way in.

Teana could faintly see the pink-glowing bubble of Signum's kinetic barrier through the vicious storm as she approached the rain-soaked hull of the fallen vessel. The most obvious means of entry would be through the damage to the bow of the ship, but the enemy had likely covered that.

There would be other ways, Teana knew.

Sensors detect power surge at access panel C-27, Cross Mirage reported suddenly, opening a holographic display detailing a full schematic of the exterior of the fallen vessel.

“The panel is opening,” Teana gasped instinctively, her voice completely drowned out by the pouring rain. Shadow group, stay sharp! We have company!

I see it, Signum came back evenly. Teana could barely see through the rain at this range, but she felt a distinct magical pulse as Laevateinn loaded a cartridge. The Armed Device flared with energy and was wreathed in blazing fire.

Hypervelocity slugs whizzed through the air, but fortunately didn't manage to hit any of the team. Teana immediately responded by raising her combat barrier—and started barking orders mentally.

Shadow-Two, send Garyuu inside to keep the panel from closing.

Yes, ma'am!

Teana ran forward as fast as she could across the slick wet rock, trying desperately to avoid falling. Signum was already hard at work, she could tell—the glow of her kinetic barrier was visible several dozen feet above the ground. Flashes of raving purple flame served as a brilliant counterpoint to the omnipresent lightning strikes.

The panel is held open, Lutecia came back a moment later.

Shadow-One, how much longer?

Give me a few more minutes, Signum's mental voice came back in Teana's mind, sounding only slightly peaked, as if she had just taken a quick jog around the block. The red-haired Enforcer smiled tightly as Laevateinn flashed with fierce purple light, followed by a barely-audible scream of agony.

Teana ran toward the glowing rectangle visible against the derelict vessel's smooth gray hull. With Signum keeping the advance guard occupied, she didn't have to worry too much about catching a hypervelocity slug in mid-stride.

“Come on!” Lutecia implored loudly. Teana took Lutecia's outstretched hand and grimaced as the smaller woman levered her up through the access panel and into the far less noisy confines of the ship.

The rest of the team watched as Signum finished off the last of the four guards, her Armed Device's blade slamming heavily into the man's Barrier Jacket. The heavy blow sundered his armor and magical defenses, blasting his body back against the hull of the derelict vessel with a ringing clang!

“Signum, get in here! We don't know when more of them will be coming!” Teana shouted over the roar of the storm. The Belkan knight nodded wordlessly and broke into a run, sheathing Laevateinn as she moved.

“She's in,” Teana told Lutecia. The summoner nodded and sent a mental command to Garyuu. The insect guardian responded by slamming a heavy, chitinous fist down on the control panel, rending metal, shattering electrical components.

“There's no labeling or signs or anything,” Lutecia reported, seeing the confusion in Signum and Teana's eyes. “The original owners of this ship weren't human... they likely used different methods of conveying information.”

“They were similar enough to us,” Signum replied, “if the information contained within the Infinity Library is true.”

“I hate to interrupt, but now isn't exactly the best time for a scientific debate,” Victor said warily. “There's something not right here.”

“What's going on?”

“Well, as near as I can tell,” Victor explained, “the place is running on auxiliary power. The ship's primary reactor is offline. The AMF appears to be weakening, and it will eventually stop functioning entirely when aux power drops too low.”

“How do you know all that?” Teana wanted to know.

“It's standard for most space-faring vessels,” Victor said. “The lights are dim and they flicker from time to time, and see the red glow near each bulkhead? That is commonly used as an indicator that the ship is operating on aux power.”

“But this is an alien vessel,” Vivio objected.

“There's a reason the Al'hazred are also called the 'Precursors.' Our technology is largely based upon theirs—especially Belkan technology,” Lutecia explained. It was well-known within the Shadows that Lutecia was an expert on ancient Belkan history and technology.

“Why is the reactor offline, then?” Vivio wanted to know.

“I have no idea,” Victor said helplessly. “Perhaps they've had trouble getting this thing functional. The Precursor tech may be the template used for all modern Belkan and Midchildan systems, but it runs on a completely divergent system of core logic.”

“It saves us the trouble of disabling the reactor ourselves,” Signum rumbled. “We need to get moving.”

“This ship is enormous, and nothing is labeled,” Vivio protested. “How will we know where we're supposed to go?

“And as long as that AMF is still active, we can't rely upon our Devices' sensors to find Celica,” Victor added grimly.

“I think I can do it,” Lutecia said suddenly, “with a little help from a friend.” The summoner pulled a small blue crystal earring from her pocket, showing it to the rest of the team.

“Iris-Lynnfield's Interface Device?” Teana asked rhetorically. “How will that help us? Devices are keyed to their wielder's Linker Core signature. Only the person who owns the Device can use it!”

The shard of crystal flashed with blue-white light and began to warm slightly in Lutecia's hand. It would take a moment longer for the Device to restart from a cold shutdown, Lutecia knew.

“Alert,” Cross Mirage reported urgently. “There are heat signatures closing on this position.” Teana stiffened slightly. It was, of course, impossible that their presence had gone unnoticed. Even without access to the dead ship's security network, and even considering the presence of a powerful AMF, the alarm had been sounded.

“The guards Signum took out didn't report in, obviously,” Teana said by way of explanation. “Better hurry up with that, Alphine!”

“It's about to get hot in here,” Victor said darkly. “How long is it going to take you to find her?”

“I do not have a time estimate,” Tizona explained. “Passive scan is insufficient to locate the mistress. Lutecia Alphine, please establish active wide area search protocols.”

“Asclepius,” Lutecia said softly. The Device responded without words as a black-violet Belkan magic circle blazed into existence beneath Lutecia's feet. The two Devices, working in tandem, initiated the magical search.

“Get down!” Signum shouted, pushing Vivio out of the way as a group of three renegade mages rounded the corner, linear rifles brandished and ready. The man-portable magnetic accelerators dumped a staggering volume of fire at the infiltration team.

“Signum, Victor, take them out,” Teana ordered as she sent a hail of magical bullets down the corridor. The small missiles would scarcely break through the enemy mages' kinetic barriers, especially under a strong AMF, but it would keep them hemmed in.

“[Aura: Lightning],” Stella intoned as a red-glowing, spinning Belkan magic circle materialized beneath his feet. The gauntlet-type Armed Device began to glow with a crackling argent radiance. Victor surged forward, bringing Stella up to guard his face as the enemy mages shifted targets from the group to the oncoming Belkan knight.

“[Diamond Shield],” Stella cried, erecting a strong, directional kinetic barrier. Hypervelocity slugs that hit the shield sizzled and were sent flying off in divergent directions, tearing gaping holes in the silvery-gray metal of the corridor.

Victor let out a roaring battle cry as he surged forward, shoulder-slamming heavily into one of the enemy mages, knocking the man from his feet and sending him sprawling.

“[Barrier Burst].”

A massive explosion tore through the center of the corridor, knocking one of the renegades to the floor and destroying her kinetic barrier, her head striking the side of the corridor. There was a wet crack as her neck snapped, instantly killing her. The third mage managed to bring up a barrier just in time to deflect the detonation—

“Shiden Issen!” Signum cried as her blade, wreathed with flame, slashed through the man's Barrier Jacket, striking him with such force that he slammed into the corridor wall. He slumped down to the floor, unconscious but alive.

“Lutecia, how's it coming?” Teana wanted to know. “That wasn't the last of them, I'm sure.”

“I have found her,” Tizona announced triumphantly. “Interference and alien construction complicated matters. I cannot map the interior of this vessel.”

“I can. Transmitting location,” Tizona said helpfully. Lutecia smiled slightly as her own Device began to pulse with soft violet light. The data transfer complete, she could now get a general “feel” as to Celica's location.

“It's moving around a little,” Lutecia murmured, “as if she isn't locked up... what? Oh... no.” The summoner felt her blood suddenly turn to ice water as she felt something else nearby.

“Celica may become a ghost if we don't get our asses moving,” Lutecia said bleakly. “Abraham Stele has found her.”

---

“Nova Lancer!”

The concussive projectiles exploded ineffectually against the giant knight's stylized Belkan armor plate. Celica backpedaled, glancing around her. The wide atrium led back to the reactor control room, but the only exit was behind the behemoth looming over her.

“Pathetic,” Abraham Stele scoffed derisively. “You rely too much on your Device, girl. Even with it, you would still be no match for me.”

“Tell me something I don't know,” Celica muttered.

“I have ascended,” Stele said grandly, spreading his arms wide. “I have surpassed the limitations of mortal mages. I possess the might of the gods and the creators, and you... you are insignificant. You are but an insect... and I will CRUSH you.”

Celica stared at the man in shock as he was wreathed in blazing orange-red flame. His body began to float, lifting several inches off the metal deck. The red-haired mage watched in horror as magical power—far too much of it—pulsed through his body.

An impossibly-bright orange Belkan magical circle materialized beneath his slowly levitating form. Stele's mouth opened in a horrific scream of agony and rage as his eyes exploded into twin flares of magic. His armor—and the skin beneath it—began to crack and rupture, brilliantly shining from within. Flames of raw magic wreathed both of his hands, spilling molten light and searing heat from the joints in his armor.

His physical form is being consumed by the magic, but it's not killing him! Celica involuntarily took a step back, the waves of heat emanating from Stele's magic-soaked body almost unbearable.

“I will tear you apart,” Stele promised, his voice amplified and distorted from the sheer volume of power flooding through his artificially-enhanced Linker Core.

Celica threw her hands up and hastily erected a kinetic barrier, but she was much too slow. An enormous pulse of invisible force and heat blew off from Stele's body, sending her flying through the air to crash heavily against a wall.

Celica blinked her eyes rapidly at the edging blackness around her vision, but it was too late. Stele's massive hand closed around her throat and clamped down with incredible force. She began to feel dizzy as her windpipe collapsed under the pressure—but he wasn't going to make this a fast death, Celica knew. The hand that held her suspended was unbearably hot—she could feel the soft flesh of her neck cooking as Stele squeezed, slowly letting the life drain out of her.

This is it, Celica thought bleakly. Never thought I'd die of old age, anyway...

Then, without warning, the pain stopped and she could breathe again as the hand released her. Celica gasped and collapsed in a heap, her body shaking as she was wracked by coughing fits.

“Interruption not appreciated,” Stele roared, whirling around with inhuman agility, his right fist lashing out with incredible force. A black flash was suddenly interrupted as Stele's blow caught Garyuu directly in the center of mass. It was blindingly fast—Celica did not even have time to process the scene.

The insect guardian was flung across the wide corridor, his chitinous armor crumbling from the force of the blow. Stele glowered in annoyance as the summoned guardian, seriously injured, retreated back to its home dimension.

Celica's jaw dropped nearly to the floor as a tall woman, dressed in Belkan-style knight armor and wielding a sword-form Armed Device, came out from around the corner into the large atrium.

“Signum,” Stele said with interest. “The leader of the Wolkenritter, General Yagami's personal task force. I, too, look forward to this meeting. It will be my pleasure to destroy you utterly.”

Laevateinn's blade came up sharply. “I don't think so.”

Stele laughed, a horrible, distorted sound, as he lifted his hand up and called forth his Armed Device. The huge two-handed broadsword Ridill retrieved itself from a suspended state and materialized in his upraised hand. With a mocking salute, Stele launched himself into battle.

Celica backed away as fast as she could as Signum charged, bringing her sword up and around for a vicious spinning slash. The Armed Device's blade blazed with flame, but the attack was ultimately deflected as Stele effortlessly maneuvered Ridill's heavy blade to parry.

Signum dodged, just barely avoiding a heavy kick from Stele's blackened plate boots. She whirled around and slashed rapidly with her sword. Celica stood up and started running, trying to get to the other side—if Signum could keep the behemoth busy long enough, perhaps she could—

“Celica, get over here!”

The red-haired mage whirled at the sound of Lutecia's voice. She was surprised to see the summoner and Vivio both crouching behind Victor Stormhawk and a mage Celica identified as the famous Enforcer, Teana Lanster. Victor held up a potent directional barrier while Teana wielded her gun-form Device, ready to unleash hell upon Stele the moment Signum brought his defenses down.

“The AMF is almost completely gone,” Teana said to Lutecia, who nodded briefly.

“Celica, how are you feeling?” Lutecia asked worriedly. “She's injured—Vivio, can you help?”

“Sure,” Vivio said, leaning down to examine the older woman's wounds. Celica had not been seriously damaged by the explosion—the hastily-raised kinetic barrier had likely saved her from broken bones. The young blond woman began channeling healing energy into healing the worst of the injuries, the blistered and burned skin on Celica's neck.

“I'll be fine; nothing's broken,” Celica said, shaking her head in spite of the burning pain. “We've got more important things to worry about right now!”

The lights in the atrium suddenly flickered and dimmed. “The AMF is completely down,” Celica told them. “I knew it wouldn't hold much longer. Aux power has dropped too low to sustain it.”

“What now, then?” Vivio wanted to know.

“We pull out and blow this place to hell,” Victor said, watching as the fight between Signum and Stele began to shift in the huge glowing knight's favor. “Oh, fuck!”

“You cannot defeat me!” Stele roared, whipping Ridill around and charging forth, his magic-saturated body spinning in a whirling storm of steel and magic. Signum was too slow to dodge and was hit with the full force of the blow, blasting through her kinetic barrier and nearly knocking her from her feet.

“She can't stop him on her own!” Celica cried. “He's used the Factory's technology. There isn't a mage alive that's a one-on-one match for him!”

“What are your orders, Lead?” Victor said through gritted teeth. Teana took a deep breath and made the decision.

“Victor, Vivio, move into close range and assist Signum in weakening Stele's defenses. Lutecia, let's keep him on his toes from a distance and support our allies,” Teana commanded.

The leader of the operation then turned to Celica, who was standing up, albeit quite shakily. Despite Vivio's hasty healing, her slender neck was still marred with blistered burns where Stele's cracked, magically-heated hand had gripped her. It would leave quite a scar, she knew, at least until she could spare the downtime to have it properly repaired.

“Celica, I know you're not quite fit for duty just yet, but there's one more loose end that needs to be tied up.”

“Hayes,” Celica said grimly, her mind following the same tack.

“Take care of it for me,” Teana said bluntly. “You aren't a warrior—in this situation, you will be more of a liability than an asset.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Celica said, saluting Teana and smiling. She turned to walk away, but was stopped by Lutecia.

She had never fought a foe like this before. Nothing she had ever encountered—not the Book of Darkness's berserk defense program, not the knight Zest in unison with Agito, not Enforcer-Commandant Harlaown herself—could even approach what she fought now.

Stele was no longer human. His body was nothing but a shell, a husk surrounding a core of incredible magical potential. He cast spells almost instantaneously, and his physical strength, reaction time and speed had been amplified to superhuman levels.

But he was her foe, and she would defeat him. Or she would die trying.

“Laevateinn!” Signum roared, snapping her blade back and low, preparing for a lightning-fast strike.

“Explosion!”

The Armed Device's action cycled multiple times as it loaded several cartridges, temporarily boosting Signum's Linker Core charge beyond its normal capacity limits. Wreathed in purple fire, she flashed forward with blinding speed, striking several blows that would have felled a lesser opponent.

Stele simply laughed, an unearthly sound that seemed to echo and resonate—of course, the man's lungs and vocal cords had completely burned away. He was a magical force-made-flesh, and the deadly strikes merely scored bright lines across his form.

“Fool!” Stele mocked, whipping Ridill around to strike Signum with terrific force. She brought her blade around to deflect the impact, but was a moment too slow. Ridill's blade tore through her kinetic barrier, slashing against the side of her torso, searing a gash through the flesh.

Signum hissed aloud in pain, but set her teeth and charged in for a renewed, furious assault. Stele easily picked off the first attack, but failed to react fast enough for the second one. Signum's sword scabbard caught the flat of his blade with enough force to knock Ridill out of his grip and skittering across the deck.

And the third attack, from an unanticipated source, hit him full-force.

“[Discharge],” Stella declared. Victor aimed the palm of his red-glowing gauntlet at Stele's body and fired, releasing the stored elemental charge. A basketball-sized burst of magical heat and flame exploded with a great roar, the impact of detonation sending Stele staggering back.

“Burning Glory, Revolver Form!” Vivio shouted, flipping her staff-cross Device around as the weapon began to collapse in upon itself, forming a heavy-barreled revolver with no bore.

She darted forward, heedless of her own safety, and raised the strange weapon to strike, pulling the trigger twice in rapid succession. The loaded cartridges emptied, causing the heavy barrel to flare with multicolored light.

“[Burning Cross],” the Device said as Vivio charged forward, striking two heavy blows against Stele just as Signum regained her balance.

The behemoth, staggered by the sudden, unexpected attacks, was temporarily off-balance. Lutecia stepped forward and cast a spell; the black-violet magical circle blazing beneath her feet.

“[Shadow Shield],” Asclepius declared, and a translucent purple dome of force materialized above both herself and Teana, protecting the marksmanship expert as she prepared to unleash a devastating attack.

“You are no match for me,” Stele rumbled, his hands clenching into massive fists, blazing with barely-contained power. He spun around and threw a vicious punch at Signum, who brought her Device up to block at the last moment. The impact detonated the power charged in Stele's hand, sending the woman staggering back, off-balance.

Stele pressed his advantage, but it was soon apparent that the coordinated attacks of his opponents could seriously threaten him. He could no longer feel pain, but he could still detect the damage dealt as the genetic descendant of the Sankt Kaiser struck a flurry of heavy blows.

“We are a match for you!” Victor cried, leaping forward. Stele backpedaled and attempted to deflect the blow, but Victor and Stella were too fast. The heavy plated gauntlet connected with a solid crack and exploded outward on impact, tearing Stele's jaw off and sending it flying across the room.

Stele roared wordlessly, brilliant wisps of orange-glowing magical energy leaking from the wound. He brought a mailed foot up and around, catching Victor in the stomach with such force his kinetic barrier shattered. Victor made a hoarse retching sound and doubled over, coughing wetly.

“Burning Claw!” Vivio shouted wrathfully, coordinating her attack with Signum's. The two struck simultaenously, focusing on a single part—Stele's right arm. The hammer blows, detonating with magically-enhanced force, blasted the limb already weakened by Signum's slash.

In a burst of brilliant molten orange, the arm fragmented and was blasted off, sending pieces of charred flesh and blackened armor plating skittering across the deck. Pulses of bright energy flowed from the terrible wound, dripping molten blobs of raw magic.

“Any time now, Teana!” Lutecia shouted, sighting down Asclepius as the three close-combat fighters moved in a coordinated withdrawal.

Yellow-orange lightning crackled down Teana's body as a Midchildan magical circle materialized beneath her feet. She held both instances of Cross Mirage close, preparing her most powerful bombardment spell.

“Ready!” Signum shouted. Victor and Vivio immediately shot off in the direction of the main corridor, both having no desire at all to be in the same room when the inevitable devastation was loosed.

“Now!” Lutecia cried, loosing a withering barrage of magical projectiles that hemmed Stele in, not truly hurting him, but draining his kinetic barrier of energy with every impact.

Stele roared deafeningly, his voice lost after Victor's shattering blow ruined his jaw, and he turned, cat-quick, his remaining hand glowing with the light of a miniature sun. A searing beam of orange-red energy flared from the glowing point of magical energy, melting huge troughs into the silvery metal of the atrium's walls.

“Karyuu Issen!” Signum cried, sending a massive blade of pure magical flame out in a swing that slashed through the air, directly aimed at Stele's body.

Simultaneously, with near-perfect coordination, the magical abomination that was once Abraham Stele was hit from two directions with a pair of incredibly potent bombardment attacks.

The abomination's kinetic barrier was torn apart, shattering as if it were made of glass. Armor plating and ruined, cracked flesh blew outward, leaving tremendous gaping holes in Stele's body. Liquid streams of condensed magic poured from the “wounds.”

Roaring in agony and rage, Stele shifted his beam of intense destructive energy and caught Signum across her legs, sending her careening backwards. The impact and the intense heat dropped the female knight instantly, bright blood spurting from the wound.

“Signum!” Teana screamed, but she had her own problems to deal with. Stele, though severely weakened, managed to shift the beam, slicing through Lutecia's shadow shield. The magical discharge would kill her if it connected, Teana knew—her armor and kinetic barrier were nowhere near as strong as Signum's, and the attack had sliced through her defenses as if they were tissue paper.

“[Flash Move].”

Teana felt a bright flash of pain on the back of her head and opened her eyes. Vivio had tackled her to the ground, the beam of disintegration arcing overhead, missing by half a meter.

“Thanks, Vivio. You saved my ass,” Teana breathed, wincing painfully. The high-speed collision may have saved her from certain death, but Vivio had tackled her with enough force to break a rib or two.

Asclepius's emitter jewels began to pulse with crackling black-violet lightning. Lutecia closed her eyes and poured all of her power—the tremendous capacity of a summoner's Linker Core—into a single, incredibly powerful spell, one that caused a tiny, localized dimensional dislocation.

“[Shadow Warp],” Asclepius said ominously.

The air around Stele began to warp and distort, bending weirdly. Arcs of black-violet lightning erupted from the center of the dimensional distortion as the very fabric of reality was torn asunder. Space and time shattered and broke apart around Stele's body.

The magical abomination's kinetic barrier, already severely weakened by the dual strike from Signum and Teana, could not hold up under the terrific forces it was being exposed to. The hole in space-time collapsed upon itself, squeezing Stele's body with crushing pressure. The monster Stele roared ineffectually, the sound barely audible from within the field of warped reality.

“Die, you son of a bitch,” Lutecia said wrathfully, clenching her right hand tightly, completing the spell.

The distortion field collapsed and exploded with tremendous force. Lutecia shielded her face and immediately erected a kinetic barrier around her and Signum's unconscious form, protecting them both from the blast.

The force of the explosion rocked the entire craft, kicking up enormous clouds of vaporized metal and equipment. Secondary and tertiary blast waves rolled outward as the fractured reality began to reorganize itself, staggering the exhausted combatants.

Lutecia lowered her arm, her heart thudding at a thousand kilometers per hour, quickly scanning the atrium for any sign that Stele had somehow survived the blast...

But there was nothing left of the magical abomination that had once been Abraham Stele. Lutecia's most powerful offensive spell had blasted a gaping, four-meter-wide hole in the deck clear to the level below, the melted edges of the metal glowing red-orange.

“Ugh... Vi... I...” Lutecia gasped as she collapsed to the deck, the adrenaline rush fading, leaving behind a cold, hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her Linker Core had been overloaded by the devastating attack and was drawing on her own life energy to prevent a collapse.

“Cia!” Vivio cried, her eyes widening in shock, rushing over to the fallen young summoner.

“Don't worry about her,” Signum said weakly, struggling to stand up. Her legs were badly burned and bloodied, but thanks to the strength of her defensive barriers, they hadn't been severed from her body. Teana limped over to the Belkan swordswoman's position and helped her stand, ignoring the searing pain in her own broken ribs.

“Alphine's okay,” Victor said, leaning over the fallen woman and examining her critically. “She's alive, just unconscious. Overloaded her Linker Core with that spell, and her body just didn't have enough energy to keep her moving.”

“Is he really dead?” Vivio asked, almost fearing what the answer might be.

“If the explosion didn't kill him,” Victor explained, “whatever's left of his body—or whatever he has that keeps him moving—has been pulled into the null space between dimensions.”

“Even if he survived somehow,” Teana said, “he'd never be able to escape. Magic stops functioning in null space.”

“Let's get out of here,” Vivio said emphatically.

“Not yet,” Teana countered. “We still have a job to do. The Factory is far too dangerous to leave alone; it must be destroyed. Vivio, can you help me set the demo charges? Signum isn't in any condition to walk and Lutecia's out cold.”

“Okay,” Vivio said, eager to help in order to expedite their departure. “What about Celica?”

“She should be done with her mission very soon,” Teana replied with a slight smile. “Let's get to work.”

---

Ten minutes earlier:

Celica didn't really expect Hayes to be where she had left him, but it wasn't too hard to find out where the man had gone. He was a smart man, and he knew when to cut his losses and run.

He would try to escape, of course. Celica intended to stop him.

“How's the link?”

“New core logic downloaded and integrated into primary systems,” Tizona reported after a moment. “Secondary and specialized combat systems will not be available without a complete system update.”

“Good enough for now. Can you patch into this thing's system?” Celica asked, tapping the augmented-reality helmet she still wore. Tizona complied wordlessly and established a connection, downloading the detailed map of the facility into his memory.

Celica took the helmet off and tossed it to the deck plating, sighing in relief. The helmet was quite heavy—she never really understood how soldiers managed to wear them all the time!

“Can you find the transfer port they used to get here?” Celica asked her Device.

“I have already located it,” Tizona replied. A holographic display materialized before her eyes, containing a ghostly wireframe map of the entire Al'hazred vessel. A bright red indicator flashed, two levels below.

“That's where we need to be,” Celica said grimly. The display vanished as she tightened her grip around the dagger-form Device, picking up speed despite her injuries. Fortunately, Stele didn't have a chance to hurt her very badly—the mage smiled slightly as she considered her friends.

She knew they would succeed. And in order for the mission to succeed, she needed to get Hayes—and she needed him alive.

That part rankled her, but she knew it was necessary. The planning and organization needed to subvert nearly one-sixth of NSIS's resources and personnel must have been staggering. The information that Chrono could pull from his former second-in-command's mind would be absolutely necessary to clean up the remaining renegade elements—and secure against such a thing ever happening again in the future.

Celica dropped down through a maintenance access hatch. There was no ladder—she had to remind herself that the Al'hazred were not human, and they had different ideas of design.

“The transfer port is in the next room over,” Tizona reported after a moment. “I am detecting a spike in the ambient magical energy. The transfer port is being activated using mana cells.”

“Shit, no time for subtlety. Let's go!”

Tizona agreed wholeheartedly as Celica broke into a run, turning the corner and nearly slamming into the sealed metal door. Even without the augmented-reality helmet, Celica knew where the activation button was located.

“Tizona, is the door sealed?”

“Simple electronic lock only. No magical seal detected,” Tizona reported. Of course not, Celica knew. Hayes was not a mage himself—his Linker Core was measured to be of extremely low capacity. He had entered the Naval Forces anyway—significant magical aptitude was by no means a requirement for enlisting.

“Is it just me, or do all the high-ranking Bureau officers with no magical talent eventually end up betraying us?”

“It's just you,” Tizona said snidely.

“Oh, who asked you, anyway?” Celica muttered. “Can you get this door open or not? If that bastard gets away, we're still done for. The Admins will hang me out to dry and nothing Chrono or General Yagami can do will stop them.”

“Electronic lock bypassed,” Tizona said helpfully, ignoring the rest of his owner's statement. Celica sighed and flipped him over in a back-handed grip. The sight of a knife held in such a manner was often considered intimidating. Amusingly enough, Celica had learned in her close-combat training that a reverse grip was much more useful for defense than attack.

Still, the media-created image was what she wanted to capitalize on. It would not be very difficult to terrify Hayes, not after his entire operation—years of planning and intense organization—started to crumble down around him.

The door slid open.

The transfer port was an industrial transportable model, one designed to be dropped on prospective colony worlds by advance scouts. Likely the rogues had needed such a large transfer port in order to send materials back and forth quickly without having to use cargo vessels.

Hayes was bent over the device, his back turned toward Celica, fully engrossed in the task of connecting the transfer port to the backup mana cells. Celica noted the number of mana cells—with as many as they had, the charge produced could send him literally anywhere within administrated space.

Celica crept up behind him silently and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hi there,” she said sweetly.

The much older man recoiled in shock, but wasn't fast enough. The red-haired mage clenched her empty left hand into a fist and slammed it into Hayes's protruding gut. With a sickly wheeze, Hayes doubled over and stepped back, stumbling and nearly falling.

“Tizona, lock the transfer port,” Celica ordered.

“Yes, mistress. Transfer port sealed.”

“You! You... you rotten bitch!” Hayes shouted hoarsely, glaring hatefully up at the woman, clutching at his midsection in agony. “I should have killed you when I had the chance!”

“Quite right,” Celica said matter-of-factly. “You fucked up big-time when you left me alive after what you put me through. Unfortunately, I don't get to kill you—I need you alive to make sure the Council doesn't lock me up and throw away the key—but nobody ever said I couldn't hurt you first.”

Hayes howled in agony as Celica flipped Tizona around and slammed the dagger-form Device's pommel into his right kidney. She followed the painful strike with a heavy kick aimed directly at the man's groin, sending him crashing to the deck. Moaning from the excruciating pain, he glared at her with unbridled hatred.

“You... fucking whore... you ruined everything! You—”

“Oh, shut up,” Celica snarled viciously, her booted foot stomping down with crushing force on his ankle. There was a loud crack as the bone snapped in two. Hayes bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain—hard enough to draw blood. Sweat beaded on the man's forehead.

“You shouldn't make me enjoy this,” Celica pointed out. “I just might keep beating you until you pass out.” She kicked him again in the stomach, hard enough to overbalance herself slightly. Hayes retched and vomited, choking as the bile filled his mouth and nostrils.

“All right! All right... stop it! I surrender myself into your custody,” Hayes wheezed, his voice cracking from the pain.

“Good,” Celica said coldly. “Tizona, secure the prisoner.”

“Yes, mistress. [Stasis Bind].”

Hayes gasped in pain as the binding energy tightened around his ankles and wrists—a bit tighter than was necessary, Celica knew. Tizona had obviously picked up on his mistress's feelings—and of course, the AI knew well what this bastard had done to her.

There was only one thing left to do. Celica opened a communications link on an encrypted Bureau channel—the one most commonly used by Enforcers.

“Lanster, this is Iris-Lynnfield,” Celica announced. “I have the prisoner in custody. Go ahead and complete the operation.”

“Understood, Iris-Lynnfield,” Teana's voice came back, slightly distorted from the interference. “I'm uploading the pickup point to Tizona for you. Meet us there within ten minutes.”

“I have my own way out,” Celica explained. “Don't bother waiting up for me.”

“Acknowledged,” Teana said immediately, not bothering to question the woman. Celica closed the communications link and turned back toward the transfer port. A blue-white hexagonal magical circle glowed softly above the device—Tizona's seal.

Admiral Chrono Harlaown pressed a button on his desk, unsealing the door leading into his office. His secretary had already alerted him to the presence of one of his agents. A young woman with dark hair and bright blue eyes walked into the room, dressed smartly in the royal-blue uniform of the Naval Forces.

“Admiral, the prisoner has been secured in interrogation room #3,” Accela said calmly. “I'll prepare the appropriate paperwork for processing.”

“Good. I'll take it from here. You're dismissed,” Chrono said softly, not bothering to look up from his desk. The multitude of holographic displays suspended above his desk scrolled reams of information concerning the incident. Since he had forcibly sent Cinque home on a week's vacation, a lot of extra work his secretary wasn't cleared for fell to him.

Chrono sighed heavily. It had been concluded, at least in action, but there would be a veritable mountain of paperwork to follow. Hayes could cool his heels in the interrogation room for now. He was likely still in a great deal of pain after the beating Celica had given him, Chrono figured.

Not that he didn't deserve every bit of it and then some, the former Enforcer thought bitterly. By all rights, Hayes should have been executed, right then and there, by the hand of the woman he nearly destroyed.

But there were concerns that went above his personal desires. The Council's attention may have been temporarily deflected by Administrator Lindy Harlaown's plan to induct Earth as an administrated world, but they wouldn't let sleeping dogs lie for long. They would eventually come back to NSIS, and Chrono wanted to get to them first.

With Hayes alive and in custody, he would be able to hand them a scapegoat. By offering the traitorous flag officer up as a blood sacrifice to the altar of Justice, Chrono prayed that the Shadows would be left alone.

“Without the autonomy we have now,” Chrono said aloud, “we'd never be able to avoid political corruption as a puppet of the Administrative Council.”

“I agree completely,” a very familiar female voice said from behind him.

Chrono stifled a groan of frustration and turned around slowly, coming face-to-face with General Hayate Yagami—one of the famous “Aces,” SS-rank aerial mage, comrade-in-arms and Supreme Commander of the City Defense Forces.

She was also the only mage in the entire Bureau who could teleport inside his office unnoticed, unannounced and unauthorized—a little fact that irritated him to no end.

Which, of course, was precisely why she did it.

“I had Celica strengthen and redesign the wards around my office to keep the likes of you out,” Chrono said sourly. “How did you manage to bypass them this time? Never mind, I'm not sure I even want to know.”

“It's good to see you, too, Chrono,” Hayate said warmly. “I came to discuss something important. It really couldn't wait.”

“I have to pick apart Hayes's brain before I can hand him over to the Enforcers,” said Chrono defensively. “Just give me two days and then Fate can have him, with a grand trial and everything. Of course, with NSIS being what it is, the whole thing will be bullshit—I'm sure my sister won't like that very much, either.”

“I'm not here about your prisoner,” Hayate said innocently. “For the next few days, as far as the Bureau is concerned, he doesn't exist.”

Chrono sighed. At least he got the answer he was hoping for. “So, what are you here for, if not that?”

“Your mother dropped an enormous bomb on the Bureau when she pressed for an effort to extend Earth an invitation as an administrated world. The upper echelons of the Bureau are in complete chaos over the announcement—something you wouldn't have heard about, cloistered here in the shadows as you are.”

“Of course I heard,” Chrono snorted. “Information is my weapon, Hayate. I already know as much, if not more, than you do.”

“Then you also must have heard that the Bureau wants to create a special task force to deal with the inevitable problems this transition will cause. You know as well as I do that Unit Epsilon's activity was not generally known to the populace of Earth. Many will see our invitation as an invasion.”

“That's what many of the flag officers suggested, yes,” Hayate said, “but you and I both know that mages like Subaru, Caro, Nanoha and Fate aren't suited for this kind of work. The Bureau takes prospective mages and builds them up into heroes of justice. They emphasize strong morals, great kindness and gentle warmth. The heroes of justice the Bureau creates just aren't very good at working in the shadows.”

Chrono did not miss the emphasis on the last word. He knew what Hayate was asking, but he ran his organization somewhat differently than the rest of the Bureau. The command structure within NSIS was much more rigid, but at the same time, the individual agents under his command had much more freedom. Under special circumstances, they had the option to turn down a given assignment, and this was definitely one of those circumstances.

Of course, Chrono knew damn well exactly who Hayate had in mind for the special force—and he knew what their answers would be, should he give them the assignment.

“I'll talk with the three of them,” Chrono said after a long moment. “I suspect that the individuals you want will all agree to the mission—they're all bright enough to understand the ramifications if everything goes sour.”

“Thank you, Chrono,” said Hayate with some degree of relief. The admiral allowed himself a small smile—for once, General Yagami hadn't been two steps ahead of him when something she wanted was on the line.

“You really thought I might not agree?”

“I actually wasn't sure,” she admitted, biting her lower lip. “Lutecia, Victor, Celica... the three of them have been through hell with this incident. I wouldn't be surprised if you sent all three of them on a two-month administrative leave.”

“I tried,” Chrono said lamely, “but all three of them unanimously told me to shove it and that they'd all be back to work by Monday. I had to threaten to put Celica on deep-space sensor duty for a month if she didn't go to the hospital to get the burns on her neck repaired.”

“You've got a lot to be proud of with subordinates like that,” Hayate pointed out, smiling slightly.

“Oh, I am. Agents like Alphine, Stormhawk and Iris-Lynnfield... they're the future of this organization. Without people like them, NSIS really would be what the Council believes us to be.”

“Thank you, Chrono, for hearing me out,” Hayate said gratefully, dipping her head slightly in a military bow. “It's going to be ugly no matter how we go about it, but I feel a little more optimistic about things knowing we'll have solid, reliable people on the ground out there.”

“Don't mention it. Don't ever mention it,” Chrono said with a chuckle. “I need to get back to work, Hayate. It's good to see you, under any circumstances.”

“I'll find my own way out—”

“Oh, no you don't,” Chrono interrupted, holding a hand up. “You'll leave my office like everyone else—through the door, and have my secretary clear you to leave back to the Spire.”

“But it's a lot faster if I—”

Chrono just laughed.

Spoiler for author's notes:

Holy crap the finale!

Also the longest chapter! I was afraid I'd have to break it up into two chapters, but I figure, you guys have been waiting long enough for the final battle.

This is effectively the end of false light, though there's actually one more (pretty short) chapter remaining.

It's an epilogue for some more Lutecia/Celica/Victor/Cinque character interaction that also leads into the sequel to false light, which is called the truth.

Bonus: If anyone guesses where the idea for Stele's “ascendant” form came from, they win e-cookies. Hint: the inspiration came from the reason why this chapter was so slow coming out.

In the corner of a hallway of the first floor in the ancient facility, three pillars of golden light faded into vision. From them sprang two armored figures – one in green armor and the other in red – and a small spherical silver-plated hovering droid.

“We must collect the Index” the droid said, “before we can activate the installation.”

The two Spartans looked about, gathering their bearings on their current surroundings. They began to move forward cautiously, following the Monitor. 10 Infection Forms up ahead noticed them, and the Chief took them out with his assault rifle before they could get close. They moved up, and a new foe emerged from the shadows to the left. It was large and bulbous, waddling forward on two stubby legs. The two remembered Chen’s description of a Carrier Form, and gunned it down before it could get close. It exploded, scraps of flesh flying everywhere as six Infection Forms were released and were quickly popped. Ahead, a trio of Combat Forms leapt down from a vent and ran at them; Teana stepped forward, shotgun drawn, and blew them away. Another Carrier Form followed them, dispensing five Infection Forms when it fell, which John gunned down. They moved forward, catching up to the Monitor.

“We are near the Index chamber” he said. “Follow me.” He flew over a wall, and in the wall was a currently-opening revolving door. From the left, another group of Flood forms – 3 Combat and 2 Carrier – leapt out, and the Chief tossed a frag grenade that took out all five, the shrapnel ripping through the Carrier Forms and killing about half of the Infection Forms carried within, and leaving the rest easy prey to assault rifle fire. They turned left, passing through a short door into a massive, circular chamber. In the center, floating above a deep pit far out of their reach, was a glowing green object.

Suddenly, Guilty Spark turned and flew down to them, stopping in front of Teana. “Interesting” he said. “The intelligent weapon you carry is infused with a class of magic that bears great similarity to my makers’. Perhaps a descendant style. In that case, our upgrade facility should work on your weapon. Please, follow me for a moment.”

He led her to a small chamber off to the side. In the middle was a round platform. “Unfortunate” Spark said. “This machine is only partially working; the data modules containing schematics for my makers’ weapons have been irreparably damaged. However, the upgrade device itself is still functional. It can likely draw data from your suit, and from that close-range projectile weapon you’re carrying.”

Teana stepped into the circle, setting Cross Mirage down in dormant form. After a few seconds, the card began to rise in a pillar of blue light. Blue particles of some sort began to swirl about, only to converge on the card, which glowed bright blue for a few seconds before fading. Teana reached out and caught the card.

Teana activated Mirage, switching to Rifle Mode. She concentrated, and it changed. When the orange light faded, Mirage was 1.6 meters long, with a longer, thinner barrel. There was no ejection port, because this was not based on a human weapon. Teana, ever the sniper, relished in the idea that she now essentially held a limitless-charge Covenant Type-50 Particle Beam Rifle; where the open circle holding ammo crystals would be, there was instead the circular gold gem with a red outline and ‘X’ that was Cross Mirage’s core. Atop the rifle sat a scope, with 5x and 10x magnification, and standard and infrared modes.

She concentrated again, and again Cross Mirage shifted form. Now, even though it carried Mirage’s characteristic look and colors, and did not have a slot to place shells, she recognized the profile of a UNSC M90 Shotgun, Mirage’s core having shrunken down (externally, at least; magic-based space-time manipulation is a tricky thing) to fit just above the trigger.

Teana exited the chamber, to find that John had been watching; he nodded approvingly. Teana handed John her shotgun ammo and dumped the empty weapon, since she now had a personal unlimited-ammo version. Just then, two Combat Forms came charging from behind. John gunned one down with his assault rifle, and the other had its head blown off by Mirage Shotgun; the now-headless reanimated corpse didn’t even flinch, continuing its charge until another blast tore through its chest, killing the Infection Form.

“The primary elevator directly above us on the fourth floor will allow us to access the Index” Spark said. “We should hurry.”

The duo moved through another small hallway on the other side of the chamber; as they exited it, three Combat Forms leapt over the 10-foot-high pillar directly ahead in quick succession; the two shotguns tore them apart before they landed. They moved on, cutting through several more Carrier and Combat Forms, switching back and forth between weapons rather frequently, and continued on until they reached a huge door. Spark hovered in front of it.

“The security doors have sealed automatically” he said. “I will go access the override to open them.” He flew off, humming to himself, and flew into a vent. Several seconds later, he re-emerged, and the door began to open, Spark flying through the gap as soon as it was wide enough to fit him. “Please follow closely” he said. “This portal is the first of 10.”

“Joy” Teana deadpanned.

They entered the next hallway, and Spark continued to speak. “Puzzling. Your weapons seem to be of rather admirable effectiveness against the Flood, despite their primitive level. I suppose the most advanced technology isn’t always necessarily the best.”

A Combat Form with a shotgun leapt from a vent on the left as they passed it, though fortunately its shot missed. John didn’t give it a second chance, pressing the assault rifle’s barrel against its chest and pulling the trigger, shredding the Infection Form and the host’s mutated spinal cord, rendering the body useless to the Flood. “The Flood must not escape the Installation” Spark said. “They would consume all.”

They moved on, passing a short period of peace before hanging a left, heading down a corridor that held a half-dozen Combat Forms and a Carrier Form that leapt down to ambush them. The Spartans, warned by their motion trackers, used their shotguns to blow two Combat Forms out of the air, and then turned their guns on the others. The Carrier Form was hit by a pistol shot (John still has his M6D and two extra clips in addition to his AR and shotgun) and exploded, the blast killing the last Combat Form; two more pistol shots killed the resulting Infection Forms.

“You can see how the body has been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection” Spark rambled. “The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any potential hosts remain, the Flood is virulent.”

“How long have you been here?” the Chief asked him. “How old are you?”

“I have been overseeing this facility since its construction, approximately 100,214 local years, many of which have been quite boring… until now. Hee-hee-hee!”

John arched an eyebrow behind his helmet. “Even dumb AIs can start to develop ‘quirks’ after about 15 or 20 years,” he said to Teana over a private channel, “and extended time without contact with other people – AI or not – can have just as bad an effect on an AI as it has on a human. It’s quite possible that this little guy is literally insane.”

“That’s the impression I was getting” she replied.

They moved down the hallway, a well-placed plasma grenade taking care of a quartet of infected Elites that ran from around the next corner. They moved to the next short hallway, tossing a grenade where a trio of Combat Forms was about to land after jumping from a vent. This was fortunate, as among the flying bits of Flood and weaponry was an M19 rocket launcher that a Human Combat Form had been carrying. A Carrier form hopped down from a vent on the right, and Teana used Mirage Rifle to gun it down and kill the Infection Forms. The two Spartans went right, and from a trench directly ahead sprang four Combat Forms, leaping out in ambush. Cross Mirage Rifle’s bayonet ripped through one’s chest, and the Master Chief’s shotgun took out two more. A precision single-shot to the chest from Mirage Rifle took the last one down.

“This installation’s research facilities are most impressive” Spark said randomly. “Perhaps we’ll have time to see them later.” The Chief just shook his head and pressed on, Teana following. She switched Mirage Rifle’s under-slung attachment to 40mm grenade launcher, and fired one at a tightly-packed group of Flood up ahead. The blast combined with the lone Carrier Form’s burst to send the Combat Forms flying in all directions in several pieces, and assault rifle fire from the Chief killed the few Infection Forms that survived the dual blast. At the right turn to the next hallway, more Flood leapt out to attack, and were cut down, though in this engagement the Spartans discovered just how strong Combat Forms were, when a single full-strength tentacle-claw swipe drained the Chief’s shields from 85% to 30%. They paused after the immediate area was clear until the Chief’s shields recharged, and then pressed on, foiling a five-strong Carrier Form ambush with lots and lots of full-auto fire.

As they neared the first elevator, a horde of Combat and Infection Forms came out of its doorway. To the Spartans’ left and above, seven of the silver angular droids hovered out, and opened fire with their lasers on the Flood, culling their numbers.

“These Sentinels will supplement your combat systems, Reclaimers” Spark said. “Though I suggest you upgrade to a higher-class Combat Skin. Your current models only scan as Class 2, which is ill-suited for this level of outbreak. This level of outbreak would better suit at least a Class 12 for a lone soldier or Class 8 for a pair such as yourselves.”

If there’s a battle-suit four times as advanced as Mjolnir Mark 5, Chief thought, I’ll be first in line to try it out.

They passed through to the massive elevator. “Pardon me” Spark interrupted. “A plasma conduit breach in Sector 5-5-2-4 has disrupted power flow to a gravity maintenance facility. Repairs require my attention. I will return soon.”

John & Teana hopped onto the elevator, which slowly rose up toward the second floor.

Wait, It Gets Worse!

They stepped off the elevator and through the doorway, Guilty Spark reappearing and flying over and past them, murmuring and humming to himself. To the right, five Carrier Forms hopped down from a vent. A pistol shot from John detonated one, the blast hurling the other four every which way. 20 more seconds of full-auto work followed. They pressed on, six Sentinels coming out to assist them, and hung a left to another hallway, which was – for the moment – empty of Flood.

“Flood activity has caused a failure in a drone control subsystem” Spark said. “I must reset the backup unit. Please, continue on; I will rejoin you once I have completed my task.” Again, he disappeared, leaving the two Spartans and six Sentinels to hunker down at the next large door, the combat droids killing two Carrier Forms and their infectious payloads. Several seconds later, a huge swarm of Flood forms began to pour in toward their position. Teana & John readied shotguns, and Mirage sent a command signal to the Sentinels, instructing them to focus on the Infection & Carrier Forms in this fight while the Spartans dealt with the Combat Forms. The next few minutes were somewhat hectic, as lasers and tungsten pellets flew through the air and ripped & burned through Flood. Finally, the last Flood form fell, and seconds later the Monitor reemerged, the door opening at his command.

The next room was much larger than previous ones. Up ahead, two Carrier Forms waddled forward. John pitched a plasma grenade, and it stuck to one of them; the blast vaporized that Form’s Infection Forms and ripped the other Carrier Form apart, killing half of its living cargo and leaving the others easy prey for the Sentinels. They moved down the high, long, curving hallway, the Sentinels killing two more Combat Forms and a Carrier Form. Toward the end, Teana switched Mirage to Sniper Mode and looked through the scope, spotting that one of the three Combat Forms ahead was carrying a rocket launcher. She shot the launcher’s magazine, detonating both rockets; the explosion blew the trio of CFs to bits. They moved on to the next door, and Spark sent a command code to it. It began to open, but then something grinded and whirred, and the door stopped.

“Please wait here” Spark said, floating off, the Sentinels following him. Aside from a pack of Infection Forms – easily dealt with by a Cross Mirage Rifle 40mm grenade – the wait was peaceful, and soon Spark returned, the door opening fully. As they stepped through, the Chief noticed a horribly mangled human carcass in the corner nearby, clad in the remnants of a UNSC marine armor suit. “Who is that?” he asked Guilty Spark.

“Ah, yes, the other Reclaimer. He was far less properly equipped than you two were. That being said, he possessed quite the raw determination; he made it much farther than predicted.”

The bloodied dog-tag read MOBUTO, MARVIN – SSGT. The Chief gave an impromptu, informal eulogy, and the duo moved on, following the rambling light-bulb. A quintet of Combat Forms leapt up from a trench; a frag grenade killed three, and two shotgun blasts took down the other two. Ahead, the duo found a trench in the ground that led into a tunnel. A little ways in, a Carrier Form spotted them. A three-round burst from Mirage Rifle popped it, and a few more killed the Infection Forms. They moved in, turning right and killing another Carrier and its infectious passengers, and headed through the tunnel, turning right and seeing the end. As they approached, a Combat Form dropped from above, and the Chief blew it away. Three more charged in, backed by a small cluster of Infection Forms. Teana launched a 40mm grenade, and the confined space that the Flood were in meant that the explosion killed all of them. The two Spartans ventured out back into another hallway, killing a pair of Carrier Forms and heading left.

“Your environment suits should serve you well when the Flood begins to alter the atmosphere” Guilty Spark said from above them. “You are good planners.”

As they followed the Monitor and made a left into another shorter hallway, they came under ambush from a half-dozen Combat Forms, along with a Carrier Form from behind. Teana switched Mirage to Shotgun Mode and engaged the Combat Forms, while John spun around and gunned down the Carrier Form and its cargo. They moved ahead and shifted left to another hallway, and at the other end a quartet of Carrier Forms waddled toward them. Teana switched to Rifle Mode and fired a grenade, and soon 20 Infection Forms were heading toward them, only to pop en masse under Cross Mirage’s full-auto fire. At the other end ahead, two Combat Forms hopped down from a vent; from one of them came a rocket, which John ducked under. Teana switched to single-shot and looked through her scope, aiming for the chest; three shots were fired, and one of them popped the Infection Form inside. The other one went down with four shots, and the Spartans moved on, turning right.

“The installation was well-conceived” Spark said from up ahead, as four infected humans came out to fight. “It is surely the only way to end the Flood threat.”

The four Flood were gunned down, and the dynamic duo pressed on. Ahead, a Carrier Form served as a small bomb to injure several Combat Forms; the fact that two of the Combat Forms had a few grenades meant that the resulting combination blast obliterated the Flood forms. They continued on, fighting through more Flood, until they finally reached another elevator. They went in and got aboard, and it began to ascend.

But I Don’t Want To Ride The Elevator!

As they exited the elevator and entered another hallway, a squad of seven Sentinels came out to join them.

“I would conjecture that the other group of species on the installation is responsible for releasing the Flood” Spark said. “They seem most persistent in their attempts to access restricted areas.”

The next hallway held a small force of Combat Forms, easily dealt with, and another below-floor tunnel awaited. The two went in, and when they entered the main stretch of tunnel they could see a few Combat Forms at the other end, which had yet to notice the pair. Teana switched Mirage to Sniper Mode and peered through her scope at 10x. When the reticle brightened and gained a dot, she fired, and the particle beam ripped through a Combat Form’s chest, killing the Infection Form. She fired again, taking a second one down, and the third began charging toward her. The straight and narrow tunnel restricted it to running straight at her, leaving it easy prey for a third kill-shot. She switched back to Shotgun Mode, and she & John hurried down the cramped passage. When they neared the next turn, a swarm of Infection Forms came out, and the Chief popped them with his assault rifle. Three Combat Forms came around the corner, going down rather quickly. A Carrier Form waddled into view, and a pistol shot set it off; its explosion triggered a frag grenade on the floor, which killed the Infection Forms that sprang from the Carrier.

They exited the tunnel, rejoining the team of Sentinels from earlier. One Combat Form with a needler managed to stick seven needles in a Sentinel, and the droid was destroyed, exploding into a hail of shrapnel. The other six instantly focused on that particular Combat Form, burning it into non-recognition, and then turned their attention back to the other Flood. The Spartans moved forward, leaving the Sentinels to their work, and made two right turns, soon approaching another sealed door. The Monitor disappeared into an access port, and the two Spartans took defensive position at the door. Sure enough, like clockwork, the Flood began another attack. Five minutes of running & gunning and strafing & shooting later, and the last Form fell just as the door opened. Through the door and into the massive, cavernous room/chamber, they hung a left, and the rocket missed the Chief by about six centimeters. Teana blasted the Combat Form with Mirage Shotgun, blowing off the arm that was holding the launcher. Another shot to the chest put it down.

“Why, naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release,” Spark said, “and mass sterilization protocols may again need to be enacted. Of course, samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak... for study. It seems... that decision may have been an error.”

No shit, Teana thought as she used Mirage Shotgun to kill two more Combat Forms. Two more Combat Forms and a Carrier Form fell to the Chief. They moved on, and up ahead two large square things coming up from the floor had a pair of Combat Forms standing atop each; the four opened fire, though distance made it so the automatic weapon fire was somewhat easy to dodge. Teana switched Mirage to Rifle Mode and killed the two on the left block, while the Chief used his pistol to kill the ones on the right. From the shadows to the left came a Carrier Form, which fell under a barrage of full-auto fire, as did the IFs that came from it. The Spartans moved to yet another door, which was thankfully already open. They moved through, entering another corridor.

“The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood” Guilty Spark said. “Their survival as a race was dependent upon it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce.”

Another five Combat Forms were up ahead; they were killed with little trouble. The duo went left, fighting through yet another ambush of Combats & Carriers, shifting to a parallel hallway, where they encounter another ambush, until they finally went right and caught up to the Monitor again. They entered a room, passing through a partially-open door and coming to a closed one.

“I will deactivate the security lock” the Monitor said. “Wait here.” And away he goes again. The door they came in through sealed shut, and wave upon wave of Flood spilled forth from the two vent openings in the room. After almost five straight minutes of combat and close calls, Spark finally reappeared, and the door finally opened. The Sentinels accompanying the Monitor came into the room and picked off the stragglers, and the Spartan pair headed on, following the metallic chatterbox. “Please stay close” he said. “Time is short.”

They headed right, and a frag grenade took out six of an eight-strong Combat Form group, the last two being burnt down by the Sentinels. A little ways down, and the last elevator was reached. The Spartans climbed aboard, and ascended yet again.

Fourth Floor: Tools, Guns, Keys To Super-Weapons

Immediately upon entering the next hallway, a Carrier Form nearby exploded under a Sentinel’s fire, and the laser quickly swept across the cluster of Infection Forms, killing them. The two Spartans headed right, passing down another two-length hallway, gunning down Carrier Forms and another Combat Form ambush. They turned left and entered another below-floor tunnel. In the center of the main stretch of tunnel, a Carrier Form was positioned perfectly; the resulting blast released its cargo of five Infection Forms, but killed the 15 IFs that the CF had been walking past. They exited the tunnel into another two-door room, heading left to camp beneath the sealed door that Guilty Spark was currently trying to open. Seven Combat Forms fell before the door opened, and the pair continued on through a few more hallways, encountering another Carrier Form ambush that required a lot of bullets to deal with.

At last, they came to the final door. It opened, and several Combat Forms leapt through the widening hole, to be cut down by twin shotguns. The door opened fully, and a pack of Infection Forms scrambled through, only to be killed by a plasma grenade. After 10 solid minutes of slowly working their way through literally dozens of Flood, the exhausted pair of Spartans finally reached the massive elevator. It slowly began to descend, bringing them down to the Index. Finally, it reached the bottom, and floating green object hanging in the air directly before them.

“You may now retrieve the Index.”

John reached out, and the four spinning things holding the Index locked into place with four clicks. The T-shaped device rose up, and he grabbed hold of it and pulled it out, inspecting it. Suddenly, it was yanked from his hand, disappearing into Guilty Spark.

“Protocol requires that I take position of the Index for transport” Spark said. “Your organic bodies render you vulnerable to infection. The Index must not fall into the hands of the Flood before we can reach the control room and activate the installation.”

The golden rings of teleportation surrounded the Monitor and the two Spartans.

She had never fought a foe like this before. Nothing she had ever encountered—not the Book of Darkness's berserk defense program, not the knight Zest in unison with Agito, not Enforcer-Commandant Harlaown herself—could even approach what she fought now.

Stele was no longer human. His body was nothing but a shell, a husk surrounding a core of incredible magical potential. He cast spells almost instantaneously, and his physical strength, reaction time and speed had been amplified to superhuman levels.

But he was her foe, and she would defeat him. Or she would die trying.

“Laevateinn!” Signum roared, snapping her blade back and low, preparing for a lightning-fast strike.

“Explosion!”

The Armed Device's action cycled multiple times as it loaded several cartridges, temporarily boosting Signum's Linker Core charge beyond its normal capacity limits. Wreathed in purple fire, she flashed forward with blinding speed, striking several blows that would have felled a lesser opponent.

Stele simply laughed, an unearthly sound that seemed to echo and resonate—of course, the man's lungs and vocal cords had completely burned away. He was a magical force-made-flesh, and the deadly strikes merely scored bright lines across his form.

“Fool!” Stele mocked, whipping Ridill around to strike Signum with terrific force. She brought her blade around to deflect the impact, but was a moment too slow. Ridill's blade tore through her kinetic barrier, slashing against the side of her torso, searing a gash through the flesh.

Signum hissed aloud in pain, but set her teeth and charged in for a renewed, furious assault. Stele easily picked off the first attack, but failed to react fast enough for the second one. Signum's sword scabbard caught the flat of his blade with enough force to knock Ridill out of his grip and skittering across the deck.

And the third attack, from an unanticipated source, hit him full-force.

“[Discharge],” Stella declared. Victor aimed the palm of his red-glowing gauntlet at Stele's body and fired, releasing the stored elemental charge. A basketball-sized burst of magical heat and flame exploded with a great roar, the impact of detonation sending Stele staggering back.

“Burning Glory, Revolver Form!” Vivio shouted, flipping her staff-cross Device around as the weapon began to collapse in upon itself, forming a heavy-barreled revolver with no bore.

She darted forward, heedless of her own safety, and raised the strange weapon to strike, pulling the trigger twice in rapid succession. The loaded cartridges emptied, causing the heavy barrel to flare with multicolored light.

“[Burning Cross],” the Device said as Vivio charged forward, striking two heavy blows against Stele just as Signum regained her balance.

The behemoth, staggered by the sudden, unexpected attacks, was temporarily off-balance. Lutecia stepped forward and cast a spell; the black-violet magical circle blazing beneath her feet.

“[Shadow Shield],” Asclepius declared, and a translucent purple dome of force materialized above both herself and Teana, protecting the marksmanship expert as she prepared to unleash a devastating attack.

“You are no match for me,” Stele rumbled, his hands clenching into massive fists, blazing with barely-contained power. He spun around and threw a vicious punch at Signum, who brought her Device up to block at the last moment. The impact detonated the power charged in Stele's hand, sending the woman staggering back, off-balance.

Stele pressed his advantage, but it was soon apparent that the coordinated attacks of his opponents could seriously threaten him. He could no longer feel pain, but he could still detect the damage dealt as the genetic descendant of the Sankt Kaiser struck a flurry of heavy blows.

“We are a match for you!” Victor cried, leaping forward. Stele backpedaled and attempted to deflect the blow, but Victor and Stella were too fast. The heavy plated gauntlet connected with a solid crack and exploded outward on impact, tearing Stele's jaw off and sending it flying across the room.

Stele roared wordlessly, brilliant wisps of orange-glowing magical energy leaking from the wound. He brought a mailed foot up and around, catching Victor in the stomach with such force his kinetic barrier shattered. Victor made a hoarse retching sound and doubled over, coughing wetly.

“Burning Claw!” Vivio shouted wrathfully, coordinating her attack with Signum's. The two struck simultaenously, focusing on a single part—Stele's right arm. The hammer blows, detonating with magically-enhanced force, blasted the limb already weakened by Signum's slash.

In a burst of brilliant molten orange, the arm fragmented and was blasted off, sending pieces of charred flesh and blackened armor plating skittering across the deck. Pulses of bright energy flowed from the terrible wound, dripping molten blobs of raw magic.

“Any time now, Teana!” Lutecia shouted, sighting down Asclepius as the three close-combat fighters moved in a coordinated withdrawal.

Yellow-orange lightning crackled down Teana's body as a Midchildan magical circle materialized beneath her feet. She held both instances of Cross Mirage close, preparing her most powerful bombardment spell.

“Ready!” Signum shouted. Victor and Vivio immediately shot off in the direction of the main corridor, both having no desire at all to be in the same room when the inevitable devastation was loosed.

“Now!” Lutecia cried, loosing a withering barrage of magical projectiles that hemmed Stele in, not truly hurting him, but draining his kinetic barrier of energy with every impact.

Stele roared deafeningly, his voice lost after Victor's shattering blow ruined his jaw, and he turned, cat-quick, his remaining hand glowing with the light of a miniature sun. A searing beam of orange-red energy flared from the glowing point of magical energy, melting huge troughs into the silvery metal of the atrium's walls.

“Karyuu Issen!” Signum cried, sending a massive blade of pure magical flame out in a swing that slashed through the air, directly aimed at Stele's body.

Simultaneously, with near-perfect coordination, the magical abomination that was once Abraham Stele was hit from two directions with a pair of incredibly potent bombardment attacks.

The abomination's kinetic barrier was torn apart, shattering as if it were made of glass. Armor plating and ruined, cracked flesh blew outward, leaving tremendous gaping holes in Stele's body. Liquid streams of condensed magic poured from the “wounds.”

Roaring in agony and rage, Stele shifted his beam of intense destructive energy and caught Signum across her legs, sending her careening backwards. The impact and the intense heat dropped the female knight instantly, bright blood spurting from the wound.

“Signum!” Teana screamed, but she had her own problems to deal with. Stele, though severely weakened, managed to shift the beam, slicing through Lutecia's shadow shield. The magical discharge would kill her if it connected, Teana knew—her armor and kinetic barrier were nowhere near as strong as Signum's, and the attack had sliced through her defenses as if they were tissue paper.

“[Flash Move].”

Teana felt a bright flash of pain on the back of her head and opened her eyes. Vivio had tackled her to the ground, the beam of disintegration arcing overhead, missing by half a meter.

“Thanks, Vivio. You saved my ass,” Teana breathed, wincing painfully. The high-speed collision may have saved her from certain death, but Vivio had tackled her with enough force to break a rib or two.

Asclepius's emitter jewels began to pulse with crackling black-violet lightning. Lutecia closed her eyes and poured all of her power—the tremendous capacity of a summoner's Linker Core—into a single, incredibly powerful spell, one that caused a tiny, localized dimensional dislocation.

“[Shadow Warp],” Asclepius said ominously.

The air around Stele began to warp and distort, bending weirdly. Arcs of black-violet lightning erupted from the center of the dimensional distortion as the very fabric of reality was torn asunder. Space and time shattered and broke apart around Stele's body.

The magical abomination's kinetic barrier, already severely weakened by the dual strike from Signum and Teana, could not hold up under the terrific forces it was being exposed to. The hole in space-time collapsed upon itself, squeezing Stele's body with crushing pressure. The monster Stele roared ineffectually, the sound barely audible from within the field of warped reality.

“Die, you son of a bitch,” Lutecia said wrathfully, clenching her right hand tightly, completing the spell.

The distortion field collapsed and exploded with tremendous force. Lutecia shielded her face and immediately erected a kinetic barrier around her and Signum's unconscious form, protecting them both from the blast.

The force of the explosion rocked the entire craft, kicking up enormous clouds of vaporized metal and equipment. Secondary and tertiary blast waves rolled outward as the fractured reality began to reorganize itself, staggering the exhausted combatants.

Lutecia lowered her arm, her heart thudding at a thousand kilometers per hour, quickly scanning the atrium for any sign that Stele had somehow survived the blast...

But there was nothing left of the magical abomination that had once been Abraham Stele. Lutecia's most powerful offensive spell had blasted a gaping, four-meter-wide hole in the deck clear to the level below, the melted edges of the metal glowing red-orange.

“Ugh... Vi... I...” Lutecia gasped as she collapsed to the deck, the adrenaline rush fading, leaving behind a cold, hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her Linker Core had been overloaded by the devastating attack and was drawing on her own life energy to prevent a collapse.

“Cia!” Vivio cried, her eyes widening in shock, rushing over to the fallen young summoner.

“Don't worry about her,” Signum said weakly, struggling to stand up. Her legs were badly burned and bloodied, but thanks to the strength of her defensive barriers, they hadn't been severed from her body. Teana limped over to the Belkan swordswoman's position and helped her stand, ignoring the searing pain in her own broken ribs.

“Alphine's okay,” Victor said, leaning over the fallen woman and examining her critically. “She's alive, just unconscious. Overloaded her Linker Core with that spell, and her body just didn't have enough energy to keep her moving.”

“Is he really dead?” Vivio asked, almost fearing what the answer might be.

“If the explosion didn't kill him,” Victor explained, “whatever's left of his body—or whatever he has that keeps him moving—has been pulled into the null space between dimensions.”

“Even if he survived somehow,” Teana said, “he'd never be able to escape. Magic stops functioning in null space.”

“Let's get out of here,” Vivio said emphatically.

“Not yet,” Teana countered. “We still have a job to do. The Factory is far too dangerous to leave alone; it must be destroyed. Vivio, can you help me set the demo charges? Signum isn't in any condition to walk and Lutecia's out cold.”

“Okay,” Vivio said, eager to help in order to expedite their departure. “What about Celica?”

“She should be done with her mission very soon,” Teana replied with a slight smile. “Let's get to work.”

---

Ten minutes earlier:

Celica didn't really expect Hayes to be where she had left him, but it wasn't too hard to find out where the man had gone. He was a smart man, and he knew when to cut his losses and run.

He would try to escape, of course. Celica intended to stop him.

“How's the link?”

“New core logic downloaded and integrated into primary systems,” Tizona reported after a moment. “Secondary and specialized combat systems will not be available without a complete system update.”

“Good enough for now. Can you patch into this thing's system?” Celica asked, tapping the augmented-reality helmet she still wore. Tizona complied wordlessly and established a connection, downloading the detailed map of the facility into his memory.

Celica took the helmet off and tossed it to the deck plating, sighing in relief. The helmet was quite heavy—she never really understood how soldiers managed to wear them all the time!

“Can you find the transfer port they used to get here?” Celica asked her Device.

“I have already located it,” Tizona replied. A holographic display materialized before her eyes, containing a ghostly wireframe map of the entire Al'hazred vessel. A bright red indicator flashed, two levels below.

“That's where we need to be,” Celica said grimly. The display vanished as she tightened her grip around the dagger-form Device, picking up speed despite her injuries. Fortunately, Stele didn't have a chance to hurt her very badly—the mage smiled slightly as she considered her friends.

She knew they would succeed. And in order for the mission to succeed, she needed to get Hayes—and she needed him alive.

That part rankled her, but she knew it was necessary. The planning and organization needed to subvert nearly one-sixth of NSIS's resources and personnel must have been staggering. The information that Chrono could pull from his former second-in-command's mind would be absolutely necessary to clean up the remaining renegade elements—and secure against such a thing ever happening again in the future.

Celica dropped down through a maintenance access hatch. There was no ladder—she had to remind herself that the Al'hazred were not human, and they had different ideas of design.

“The transfer port is in the next room over,” Tizona reported after a moment. “I am detecting a spike in the ambient magical energy. The transfer port is being activated using mana cells.”

“Shit, no time for subtlety. Let's go!”

Tizona agreed wholeheartedly as Celica broke into a run, turning the corner and nearly slamming into the sealed metal door. Even without the augmented-reality helmet, Celica knew where the activation button was located.

“Tizona, is the door sealed?”

“Simple electronic lock only. No magical seal detected,” Tizona reported. Of course not, Celica knew. Hayes was not a mage himself—his Linker Core was measured to be of extremely low capacity. He had entered the Naval Forces anyway—significant magical aptitude was by no means a requirement for enlisting.

“Is it just me, or do all the high-ranking Bureau officers with no magical talent eventually end up betraying us?”

“It's just you,” Tizona said snidely.

“Oh, who asked you, anyway?” Celica muttered. “Can you get this door open or not? If that bastard gets away, we're still done for. The Admins will hang me out to dry and nothing Chrono or General Yagami can do will stop them.”

“Electronic lock bypassed,” Tizona said helpfully, ignoring the rest of his owner's statement. Celica sighed and flipped him over in a back-handed grip. The sight of a knife held in such a manner was often considered intimidating. Amusingly enough, Celica had learned in her close-combat training that a reverse grip was much more useful for defense than attack.

Still, the media-created image was what she wanted to capitalize on. It would not be very difficult to terrify Hayes, not after his entire operation—years of planning and intense organization—started to crumble down around him.

The door slid open.

The transfer port was an industrial transportable model, one designed to be dropped on prospective colony worlds by advance scouts. Likely the rogues had needed such a large transfer port in order to send materials back and forth quickly without having to use cargo vessels.

Hayes was bent over the device, his back turned toward Celica, fully engrossed in the task of connecting the transfer port to the backup mana cells. Celica noted the number of mana cells—with as many as they had, the charge produced could send him literally anywhere within administrated space.

Celica crept up behind him silently and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hi there,” she said sweetly.

The much older man recoiled in shock, but wasn't fast enough. The red-haired mage clenched her empty left hand into a fist and slammed it into Hayes's protruding gut. With a sickly wheeze, Hayes doubled over and stepped back, stumbling and nearly falling.

“Tizona, lock the transfer port,” Celica ordered.

“Yes, mistress. Transfer port sealed.”

“You! You... you rotten bitch!” Hayes shouted hoarsely, glaring hatefully up at the woman, clutching at his midsection in agony. “I should have killed you when I had the chance!”

“Quite right,” Celica said matter-of-factly. “You fucked up big-time when you left me alive after what you put me through. Unfortunately, I don't get to kill you—I need you alive to make sure the Council doesn't lock me up and throw away the key—but nobody ever said I couldn't hurt you first.”

Hayes howled in agony as Celica flipped Tizona around and slammed the dagger-form Device's pommel into his right kidney. She followed the painful strike with a heavy kick aimed directly at the man's groin, sending him crashing to the deck. Moaning from the excruciating pain, he glared at her with unbridled hatred.

“You... fucking whore... you ruined everything! You—”

“Oh, shut up,” Celica snarled viciously, her booted foot stomping down with crushing force on his ankle. There was a loud crack as the bone snapped in two. Hayes bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain—hard enough to draw blood. Sweat beaded on the man's forehead.

“You shouldn't make me enjoy this,” Celica pointed out. “I just might keep beating you until you pass out.” She kicked him again in the stomach, hard enough to overbalance herself slightly. Hayes retched and vomited, choking as the bile filled his mouth and nostrils.

“All right! All right... stop it! I surrender myself into your custody,” Hayes wheezed, his voice cracking from the pain.

“Good,” Celica said coldly. “Tizona, secure the prisoner.”

“Yes, mistress. [Stasis Bind].”

Hayes gasped in pain as the binding energy tightened around his ankles and wrists—a bit tighter than was necessary, Celica knew. Tizona had obviously picked up on his mistress's feelings—and of course, the AI knew well what this bastard had done to her.

There was only one thing left to do. Celica opened a communications link on an encrypted Bureau channel—the one most commonly used by Enforcers.

“Lanster, this is Iris-Lynnfield,” Celica announced. “I have the prisoner in custody. Go ahead and complete the operation.”

“Understood, Iris-Lynnfield,” Teana's voice came back, slightly distorted from the interference. “I'm uploading the pickup point to Tizona for you. Meet us there within ten minutes.”

“I have my own way out,” Celica explained. “Don't bother waiting up for me.”

“Acknowledged,” Teana said immediately, not bothering to question the woman. Celica closed the communications link and turned back toward the transfer port. A blue-white hexagonal magical circle glowed softly above the device—Tizona's seal.

Admiral Chrono Harlaown pressed a button on his desk, unsealing the door leading into his office. His secretary had already alerted him to the presence of one of his agents. A young woman with dark hair and bright blue eyes walked into the room, dressed smartly in the royal-blue uniform of the Naval Forces.

“Admiral, the prisoner has been secured in interrogation room #3,” Accela said calmly. “I'll prepare the appropriate paperwork for processing.”

“Good. I'll take it from here. You're dismissed,” Chrono said softly, not bothering to look up from his desk. The multitude of holographic displays suspended above his desk scrolled reams of information concerning the incident. Since he had forcibly sent Cinque home on a week's vacation, a lot of extra work his secretary wasn't cleared for fell to him.

Chrono sighed heavily. It had been concluded, at least in action, but there would be a veritable mountain of paperwork to follow. Hayes could cool his heels in the interrogation room for now. He was likely still in a great deal of pain after the beating Celica had given him, Chrono figured.

Not that he didn't deserve every bit of it and then some, the former Enforcer thought bitterly. By all rights, Hayes should have been executed, right then and there, by the hand of the woman he nearly destroyed.

But there were concerns that went above his personal desires. The Council's attention may have been temporarily deflected by Administrator Lindy Harlaown's plan to induct Earth as an administrated world, but they wouldn't let sleeping dogs lie for long. They would eventually come back to NSIS, and Chrono wanted to get to them first.

With Hayes alive and in custody, he would be able to hand them a scapegoat. By offering the traitorous flag officer up as a blood sacrifice to the altar of Justice, Chrono prayed that the Shadows would be left alone.

“Without the autonomy we have now,” Chrono said aloud, “we'd never be able to avoid political corruption as a puppet of the Administrative Council.”

“I agree completely,” a very familiar female voice said from behind him.

Chrono stifled a groan of frustration and turned around slowly, coming face-to-face with General Hayate Yagami—one of the famous “Aces,” SS-rank aerial mage, comrade-in-arms and Supreme Commander of the City Defense Forces.

She was also the only mage in the entire Bureau who could teleport inside his office unnoticed, unannounced and unauthorized—a little fact that irritated him to no end.

Which, of course, was precisely why she did it.

“I had Celica strengthen and redesign the wards around my office to keep the likes of you out,” Chrono said sourly. “How did you manage to bypass them this time? Never mind, I'm not sure I even want to know.”

“It's good to see you, too, Chrono,” Hayate said warmly. “I came to discuss something important. It really couldn't wait.”

“I have to pick apart Hayes's brain before I can hand him over to the Enforcers,” said Chrono defensively. “Just give me two days and then Fate can have him, with a grand trial and everything. Of course, with NSIS being what it is, the whole thing will be bullshit—I'm sure my sister won't like that very much, either.”

“I'm not here about your prisoner,” Hayate said innocently. “For the next few days, as far as the Bureau is concerned, he doesn't exist.”

Chrono sighed. At least he got the answer he was hoping for. “So, what are you here for, if not that?”

“Your mother dropped an enormous bomb on the Bureau when she pressed for an effort to extend Earth an invitation as an administrated world. The upper echelons of the Bureau are in complete chaos over the announcement—something you wouldn't have heard about, cloistered here in the shadows as you are.”

“Of course I heard,” Chrono snorted. “Information is my weapon, Hayate. I already know as much, if not more, than you do.”

“Then you also must have heard that the Bureau wants to create a special task force to deal with the inevitable problems this transition will cause. You know as well as I do that Unit Epsilon's activity was not generally known to the populace of Earth. Many will see our invitation as an invasion.”

“That's what many of the flag officers suggested, yes,” Hayate said, “but you and I both know that mages like Subaru, Caro, Nanoha and Fate aren't suited for this kind of work. The Bureau takes prospective mages and builds them up into heroes of justice. They emphasize strong morals, great kindness and gentle warmth. The heroes of justice the Bureau creates just aren't very good at working in the shadows.”

Chrono did not miss the emphasis on the last word. He knew what Hayate was asking, but he ran his organization somewhat differently than the rest of the Bureau. The command structure within NSIS was much more rigid, but at the same time, the individual agents under his command had much more freedom. Under special circumstances, they had the option to turn down a given assignment, and this was definitely one of those circumstances.

Of course, Chrono knew damn well exactly who Hayate had in mind for the special force—and he knew what their answers would be, should he give them the assignment.

“I'll talk with the three of them,” Chrono said after a long moment. “I suspect that the individuals you want will all agree to the mission—they're all bright enough to understand the ramifications if everything goes sour.”

“Thank you, Chrono,” said Hayate with some degree of relief. The admiral allowed himself a small smile—for once, General Yagami hadn't been two steps ahead of him when something she wanted was on the line.

“You really thought I might not agree?”

“I actually wasn't sure,” she admitted, biting her lower lip. “Lutecia, Victor, Celica... the three of them have been through hell with this incident. I wouldn't be surprised if you sent all three of them on a two-month administrative leave.”

“I tried,” Chrono said lamely, “but all three of them unanimously told me to shove it and that they'd all be back to work by Monday. I had to threaten to put Celica on deep-space sensor duty for a month if she didn't go to the hospital to get the burns on her neck repaired.”

“You've got a lot to be proud of with subordinates like that,” Hayate pointed out, smiling slightly.

“Oh, I am. Agents like Alphine, Stormhawk and Iris-Lynnfield... they're the future of this organization. Without people like them, NSIS really would be what the Council believes us to be.”

“Thank you, Chrono, for hearing me out,” Hayate said gratefully, dipping her head slightly in a military bow. “It's going to be ugly no matter how we go about it, but I feel a little more optimistic about things knowing we'll have solid, reliable people on the ground out there.”

“Don't mention it. Don't ever mention it,” Chrono said with a chuckle. “I need to get back to work, Hayate. It's good to see you, under any circumstances.”

“I'll find my own way out—”

“Oh, no you don't,” Chrono interrupted, holding a hand up. “You'll leave my office like everyone else—through the door, and have my secretary clear you to leave back to the Spire.”

“But it's a lot faster if I—”

Chrono just laughed.

Spoiler for author's notes:

Holy crap the finale!

Also the longest chapter! I was afraid I'd have to break it up into two chapters, but I figure, you guys have been waiting long enough for the final battle.

This is effectively the end of false light, though there's actually one more (pretty short) chapter remaining.

It's an epilogue for some more Lutecia/Celica/Victor/Cinque character interaction that also leads into the sequel to false light, which is called the truth.

Bonus: If anyone guesses where the idea for Stele's “ascendant” form came from, they win e-cookies. Hint: the inspiration came from the reason why this chapter was so slow coming out.

My own response is rather similar to RadiantBeam's. Coherent review to follow at some future date when brain is properly functioning. Let's see...Dragon Age, maybe, for Stele's incarnated-magic form?

(Heh, you crossed me up in that fight, too, as I was expecting what Tea was trying to set up was a Starlight Breaker...as in, since Stele was now nothing but living magic, to try and absorb him outright. I liked Lulu's final spell, too...it was sort of like half of a summon. )

I don't know if this is the same thing Jimmy C was noticing, but I noted that a lot of the telepathic-communication dialogue weren't set off in italics or any other way to distinguish them from standard narration.

Interesting ending...I'm intrigued by where you want to take the truth, particularly with questions of how advanced Earth's "secret magic projects" may or may not have become and how the Bureau plans to contact Earth's governments without causing global panic or necessitating invasion...lots of fun ahead there.

(You know, it's been really fun reading this story and seeing such a...well-adjusted Shadow!Lutecia, so different from where she's at in the "present" of the 'Verse. )

I also expected Teana to unleash a Starlight Breaker, but Lutecia's attack was really cool .

Celica thinking that she never expected to die of old age anyway was a nice moment for me...it really shows how despite the relative "secret-spy-conspiracy-coolness" treatment that the Shadows get (well, sometimes get ) in these spin-off fics, despite the fact that most of the NSIS agents are volunteers, despite the fact that they'll never get credit for what they do...their life expectancy isn't very good. While only RB has been gutsy enough to kill off a CC so far (in AU fanon, at least! ), you did a really good job of making me feel for an OC to the point that I was startled at the reminder of early mortality for people like her.

There are quite a number of spoken lines that lack quotation marks around them for some reason.

The forums don't transfer my formatting over. They're supposed to be italicized in the word processor I wrote this in. Adding quotes would make them appear to be spoken dialogue when in fact the dialogue is via thoughtspeech.

I wanted to go back and italicize everything, but I'm too lazy and I had to get to class. The formatting will be correct when I post it to FanFiction.Net.

Spoiler for Response to Dezo under spoilers due to spoileryness:

Quote:

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

My own response is rather similar to RadiantBeam's. Coherent review to follow at some future date when brain is properly functioning. Let's see...Dragon Age, maybe, for Stele's incarnated-magic form?

Mass Effect 2, actually--you were close, though! If you've played it, you'll recall the Collectors that Harbinger possesses exhibit a very similar physical change--while gaining biotic powers and a barrier.

I thought it looked pretty goddamned awesome, so I had Stele do something similar--his Linker Core just became too bright and too powerful, it burned his body from the inside-out, but didn't kill him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

(Heh, you crossed me up in that fight, too, as I was expecting what Tea was trying to set up was a Starlight Breaker...as in, since Stele was now nothing but living magic, to try and absorb him outright. I liked Lulu's final spell, too...it was sort of like half of a summon. )

I considered it! I really wanted to have Tea toss out a Starlight Breaker, but I felt it was only right to give Lulu the killing blow.

And yeah, I took her nature as a summoner into account when creating the spell--again, partially inspired by Mass Effect biotic powers Warp and Singularity...

Quote:

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Interesting ending...I'm intrigued by where you want to take the truth, particularly with questions of how advanced Earth's "secret magic projects" may or may not have become and how the Bureau plans to contact Earth's governments without causing global panic or necessitating invasion...lots of fun ahead there.

I think I may have wrote myself into a corner here, but hey, at least I'll have fun doing it. In any case, Unit Epsilon is the only known organization on Earth doing research on the "magic" used by the Bureau and other space-faring civilizations.

There could be (read: there is) more!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

You know, it's been really fun reading this story and seeing such a...well-adjusted Shadow!Lutecia, so different from where she's at in the "present" of the 'Verse.

Lutecia's well-adjusted nature was actually a request from Beamers after some serious fanon-alignment discussion.

Now that Chapter 9 is finished, several previous chapters of false light will be edited slightly to take into account the not-yet-written "conclusion" of Shadow/Sunrise/the "core" Shadowsverse stories.

I won't say any more, because frankly I don't know any more. Y'all will just have to suffer with Beamers' horrible update schedule.

A trio of teleportation ring-sets appeared on the bridge that spanned the control room; from them appeared two armored figures and a chatty droid.

“…which means that any organism with sufficient mass and cognitive capability is a potential factor.”

John looked around. Where was Cortana?

“Is… something wrong?” the Monitor asked.

“…No. Nothing.”

“Splendid! Shall we?”

Guilty Spark hovered across the bridge and over to the terminal, humming all the while, and the two Spartans followed them, Teana still having Cross Mirage out and in Rifle Mode on the off chance that the Covenant had infiltrated and were hiding nearby. Her suspicion was unfounded, fortunately. Soon, they came to the terminal.

“Unfortunately,” Spark said, “my usefulness in this particular endeavor has come to an end. Protocol does not allow units with my classification to perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core. That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimers.”

Spark handed John the Index, and he inserted it into the central terminal. A whirring sound could be heard rising in pitch, but then suddenly the flashing lights faded and the sound lowered and disappeared.

“Odd” Spark said. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Cortana reemerged from the terminal, her multicolored hologram towering over them. And she looked furious. “Oh, really?”

There was a flash of violet light, and a thud as Guilty Spark dropped to the floor.

“Cortana? Wha-”

“I have spent the last three-and-a-half hours cooped up in here, watching you two traipse about, helping that thing get set to slit our throats!”

“Hold on, now,” Teana said, “this guy may be a little unhinged, but he’s an ally.”

“Oh” the AI put a hand to her mouth, clearly sarcastic. “I didn’t realize. He’s your friend, is he? Your buddy? …DO YOU TWO HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT LITTLE BASTARD ALMOST MADE YOU DO?!”

“Yes” John replied, keeping calm. “Activate Halo’s defenses, and destroy the Flood. Which is why we brought the Index to the control center.”

“You mean this thing?” she held the Index up.

“A construct? In the core?” Spark seemed rather miffed. “That is absolutely unacceptable!”

“Fuck off!” Cortana responded.

“What impertinence! I shall purge you at once!”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” the Index disappeared, having been converted into data and absorbed by Cortana.

“…How… HOW DARE YOU?! I’LL-”

“You’ll what? I have the Index! You can just float and sputter!”

“Enough!” John finally shouted. Teana almost flinched; this was the first time she’d ever heard him raise his voice. He turned to Cortana.

“The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo’s defenses, we can wipe it out.”

Cortana shook her head and face-palmed. “You guys have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn’t kill the Flood. It kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever; we’re all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death, and that’s exactly what the Halos are designed to do: wipe the galaxy clean of all sapient life! …You don't believe me? Ask him.”

The Spartans slowly turned to face the Monitor, looks of wide-eyed shock hidden behind their visors. “…Is this true?”

“…More or less”. Teana’s jaw dropped at this. How the fuck could he not tell us this? And how can he sound so fucking casual about it?

“Technically, this installation’s harmonic neuron nullification pulse has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light-years, but once the other six follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life. Or, at least, any life with sufficient biomass and developed central nervous system to sustain the Flood. But… you already knew that. I mean… how couldn’t you?”

“Left out that little detail, did he?” Cortana said flatly.

“We have followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter. You were with me each step of the way as we managed this crisis.”

Four Sentinels hovered into view, and the Chief reached behind him and pulled Cortana out of the central terminal, slotting her into his helmet. He readied his assault rifle, and Teana switched Cross Mirage to one bullet-pistol and one plasma-bolt.

“The last Reclaimer to activate the Rings asked me: if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder his query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice; we must activate the ring.”

“Get. Us. The Hell. Out. Of here. Now.”

“If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give your cons cut to me, or I will be forced to take her from you by force.”

“That’s not going to happen” John said, and he & Teana pointed their weapons at the Monitor.

“…So be it.” He turned to his Sentinels. “Kill her. Save his head. Dispose of the rest.”

Spark teleported out, and the Sentinels opened fire.

The Gun Pointed At The Head Of The Universe

The Sentinels struck. The Spartans ducked behind the nearby glass. Teana leaned out with her plasma gun, firing a barrage of blue bolts that burned through a Sentinel’s armor and brought it down. Another Sentinel tried to fly around the barrier and get a clear shot, only to be reduced to shrapnel by John’s shotgun. The third and fourth went down to Teana’s weapons.

“We can’t let the Monitor find a way to activate the ring” Cortana said. “We have to stop him. We have to destroy Halo. According to my analysis of available data, the best course of action is somewhat… risky. An explosion of sufficient power should destabilize the ring, and will cut through a number of primary systems. We need to trigger a detonation on a very large scale, however; a starship’s fusion reactors detonating should do the job. I’m going to search what’s left of the Covenant battle-net, and see if I can locate the Pillar of Autumn’s crash-site. If the ship’s reactors are still mostly intact, we can use them to destroy Halo. The blast should blow a big enough chunk out of Halo that the resulting weak point will make the ring’s own rotation and centripetal force tear it apart. Also, when the ring fragments, its environment systems will probably fail, and that will leave the Flood to freeze to death. We’ll kill two birds with one very big stone.”

The pair walked over to the door, and Teana hit the switch. In the hallway ahead, two Elites and four Grunts engaged four Sentinels in battle. One Grunt went down, but the Sentinels were quickly dispatched. They then saw the two Spartans and opened fire. I guess Chen’s group has already left the ring, John surmised. He threw a frag grenade, killing the Grunts, while Teana switched Mirage to Sniper Mode, using two particle-beam shots to blast the Elites through the head. Up ahead, a Jackal fired an overcharged plasma pistol shot, which Teana ducked under at the last second. The alien, thinking it was at a safe distance, lowered its shield-arm, and promptly took a particle beam through the eye. The Spartans move up, turning left and passing through a door into a small Covenant impromptu base. They opened the next door, leading outside, and Teana switched Mirage to Rifle Mode full-auto, while the Chief readied his assault rifle. The door raised, revealing a red-armored Elite and four Grunts. Focused AR fire took the Elite down, and a few more shots picked off the panicking Grunts.

“I haven’t located the crash site yet,” Cortana said, “but we need to buy some time, in case the Monitor or his Sentinels find a way to activate Halo without the Index. The machinery in these canyons are Halo’s primary firing mechanisms. They consist of three phase pulse generators that amplify Halo’s signal and allow it to fire deep into space. The power levels are enormous; I can’t even begin to calculate the pulse’s exact range. So, if we damage or destroy these generators, the Monitor will need to repair them before Halo can be used. I’m marking the location of the nearest generator; we need to move in and neutralize it.”

The Spartan pair made their way down a level, killing another Elite Major, two Grunts, and a Jackal. They quickly made their way down the structure, killing more Elites, Grunts, Jackals, and a few Skirmishers. They reached the bottom, spotting a pair of Banshees waiting. Unfortunately, between them and the aircraft were several Elites & Grunts, including an Elite General, and a Wraith. They moved left, dodging a plasma mortar, and found two dead Flood Combat Forms… and a rocket launcher with eight extra rockets, which Teana grabbed. The Wraith took three hits to kill, the Elite General two more, and one last rocket killed the few Grunts who survived John’s attack. Teana kept the launcher and the two extra rockets, and they made their way over to the Banshees.

They flew almost straight up, quickly reaching the entrance to the generator. The door opened, and John fired a fuel-rod shot that killed the exiting Elite and two Grunts. They set down and got out of their flyers, heading through the door and into the generator room, Teana killing a lone Grunt guarding the machine. They found the generator, which was so bright that it hurt to look directly at.

“That’s the generator” Cortana said. “The central core is the signal amplifier. That’s what we need to shut down. We need to interrupt the pulse generator’s energy stream. I’ve adjusted your shield system, Chief, so that it will deliver an EMP to disrupt the generator, but you have to walk into the beam to trigger it.”

“I have to what?”

“Don’t worry; your shields will be drained by the burst, but they’ll recharge just like normal.”

He turned to the smaller Spartan. “Lanstar, cover me until my shields are back up.”

“Yessir”

John steeled himself and walked into the beam. There was a bang, a flash of light, and his shields were pulsing a low warning tone in his ear, informing them that they’d been completely downed.

Just as his shields recharged, a squad of Sentinels flew into the room. The Spartans opened fire, using shotgun blasts to quickly down the droids, and they then headed back outside to the Banshees.

Breaking Stuff To Look Tough

“The second pulse generator is located in the adjacent canyon” Cortana said as they got back in their Banshees. “Let’s move out, and I’ll mark the target with a NAV point when we get closer.”

The two craft flew down, launching fuel-rod shots at the Covenant on the bridge below. They spent a few minutes raining death until the bridge was clear, and then set down and got out of their Banshees, heading through the doorway on the left side. They passed counterclockwise through a room, clearing out a pair of Elites and a pack of Grunts (and a Jackal), and going through a small opening, killing two more Jackals and reaching a long hallway. At the other end emerged a blue-armored Elite, two orange-shielded Jackals, and a Grunt. A 40mm grenade from Mirage Rifle killed the little ones, and several shots from the Chief’s pistol killed the Elite. They reached the end of the hall and turned left, following a short hall that led to another larger room, where several Combat Forms exchanged fire with Covenant soldiers. After standing back and letting them fight it out a bit, the Spartans charged in, Teana with Mirage Shotgun and the Chief with his assault rifle, moving in to mop up the stragglers. They moved out, first going right to scavenge shotgun shells and frag grenades, and then starting to go left.

An Elite Zealot charged out to meet them, plasma sword blazing. Several shotgun rounds and two-thirds of an assault rifle clip took it down. They moved around the room, tossing a frag grenade to kill a few Skirmishers, and from the door ran a group of Combat Forms, who attacked and killed the Elite before turning their attention to the Spartans. Another frag killed most of them, with John stepping onto a legless fallen Combat Form and blasting it in the chest point-blank with his shotgun. Two Carrier Forms hobbled into the room, coming apart under AR fire and releasing their payload, which was also killed quickly. The Spartans moved through the door and hall, coming out on a bridge. On this bridge, a force of Covenant traded fire with Flood Combat Forms on the other bridge several meters to the left. A trio of Jackals fell as the Spartans began their crossing, followed soon after by an Elite General carrying a plasma launcher, whose death used up the last spare rockets Teana was carrying, leaving her with two shots left. As the Spartans continued across the bridge, however, they received unexpected company as several Combat Forms soared through the air, leaping several meters between bridges in a single bound and landing right in front of them. The duo charged through, shotguns blazing, until they finally reached the end of the bridge, passing through the door and following the hallway.

The next room was crawling with Combat Forms, and it took a few minutes to kill them all. A cluster of Infection Forms also came out to play, getting a frag grenade for their trouble. Around the corner up ahead, the sounds of combat announced the clash between a team of Elites and a ‘squad’ of Combat Forms. A Combat Form with a rocket launcher blew the Elites to bits, and a frag grenade from the Chief did the same to said Combat Form and all but one of its buddies. A few pistol shots took the survivor down, and Teana scavenged an extra pair of rockets. They went down the hallway and reached another room, again populated by Combat and Carrier Forms. A few minutes of exterminating, and the duo moved on, a short burst of the Chief’s assault rifle killing the Infection Forms waiting behind the next door.

Beyond this next hallway was the other bridge from earlier. Several Combat Forms traded fire with Covenant on the other bridge, and a Banshee flitted about, raining plasma on the Flood. The two moved forward, John tossing a frag grenade that shredded a few Combat Forms and sent a pair of Carriers flying over the edge. The Banshee took notice of the Spartans and tried to dive-bomb them, only to get a plasma grenade stuck to its canopy courtesy of Teana. The twisted remains of the craft plummeted to the ground far below, and the Spartans fought their way across the bridge, Teana grabbing four more rockets from a fallen Human Combat Form. They reached the end of the bridge, passing through a hallway into another circle room, where a group of Infection Forms were apparently trying to eat a dead Elite; a shotgun blast killed them. The room held a few Combat Forms and a large amount of Infection Forms; the Chief’s shotgun took out the latter, while a few dozen rounds from Mirage Rifle cleared out the latter. They passed through and reached an elevator, riding it down while being rained on by Infection Forms.

At the bottom, they fought through another room full of Combat Forms, shotguns tearing through the mutated beings that used to be a squad of UNSC marines. Through another hallway, they reached the outside. An Elite and four Grunts fired at a pair of Infection Forms, destroying them, and then popped the Infection Forms. They spotted the human pair and fired, and a 40mm rifle grenade killed the Grunts and drained the Elite’s shields, leaving it vulnerable to a rifle shot to the head.

“Okay,” Cortana said, “let’s take care of the next pulse generator”. A Banshee flew in, firing at the two while deliberately staying too high to be hijacked. A few particle-beam shots blew off its wings, and it slammed into a cliff wall. The Chief walked over to an overturned Ghost and flipped it right-side up, hopping in. Another Ghost, driven by a Grunt, drove in and opened fire. Teana shot the driver through the head and stole his ride. The two Spartans went down into the trench and looked inside the dead-end hallways at its bottom, finding a rocket launcher and many spare rocket packs. Teana loaded up, using Mirage’s subspace storage to hold the extra rockets, and then the pair drove their Ghosts up the slope. Over the snowdrift, they found two new-model Shade turrets and a Wraith, along with several Grunts and two red-armored Elites. They gunned down the Elites & Grunts and slagged the Shades, and then turned their fire on the Wraith, strafing around and peppering it with plasma fire. After nearly a solid minute, the tank finally erupted in flames. The two moved on, passing through a short tunnel, but soon encountered those narrow pillars from yesterday, and had to dismount and continue on foot. Nearby, the battered, burnt wreck of the Scorpion was pressed against the canyon wall.

They soon reached a fallen Warthog that was otherwise intact, and by some extraordinary stroke of luck it had an M68 Gauss Cannon for a turret. The Chief flipped it right-side-up and got in the driver’s seat, while Teana manned the gun. They drove up the curved rock-ramp, road-killing a quartet of Grunts, and drove through the canyon, reaching a large area with a huge tower in the middle, and the burnt carcass of the Wraith was still sitting on the large frozen lake as they rounded the corner. A Banshee flew in, firing a fuel-rod shot that missed, and a gauss shot obliterated it. They went right, encountering a Hunter pair that quickly fell to the hypersonic cannon shots. They then drove counterclockwise around the huge tower, soon encountering a Wraith. They dodged a plasma mortar and got behind it, and a shot from the big gun resulted in a gout of flame and a thoroughly mission-killed tank. Another Banshee met a similar fate seconds later. Ahead, two Elites guarded a pair of Banshees. The gauss cannon punched huge holes through their torsos, leaving a trail of semi-liquefied innards in the snow behind them. The Warthog drove up into the shadow of a nearby boulder, and the two Spartans dismounted and lowjacked the Banshees, flying up at a 75-degree angle.

At the top of the tower, there was a short two-on-one dogfight against an enemy Banshee, followed by a fuel-rod airstrike on the Covenant atop the tower, destroying their Shades and killing the Elite General. Another bombing took out the fuel-rod-gun-wielding Spec-Ops Grunts guarding the entrance to the generator, and the Banshees set down on the platform, the two Spartans heading inside. In the generator room, a horde of Combat Forms traded fire with Sentinels. A rocket from Teana’s launcher killed the former, and another took out three of the five Sentinels, the remaining two being brought down by three shots from the Master Chief’s shotgun. He carefully stepped into the beam of light, immediately triggering the EMP, and Teana moved to cover him. From the exit came a group of Combat Forms; she threw a frag grenade, and the CF holding a launcher pulled the trigger as it died, the explosion killing all but three of the Flood. The Chief rushed forward as his shield began to charge, killing two with the shotgun and punching into and through the chest of the third, ripping the Infection Form out and crushing it. The Spartan pair moved back out, stepping onto the platform and getting in their Banshees.

The Tunnels Below

They flew down, landing next to their Gauss Hog and getting in it. As they began to head for the tunnel, Cortana gave an update.

“I’ve located the Pillar of Autumn. She put down 1,200 kilometers up-spin. Energy readings show her fusion reactors are still powered up. The systems on the Pillar of Autumn have fail-safes that even I can’t override without authorization from the Captain. We’ll need to find him, or his neural implants, to start the fusion core detonation. One target remaining. Let’s take care of the final pulse generator.”

The Warthog entered the tunnel, coming across yet another Covenant vs. Flood battle. The Chief floored it as they blazed through, flattening an Elite and two Combat Forms, and reached the bottom of the slope. As they approached the turn, a rocket soared right over their heads; Teana’s return shot blew the Combat Form to bits, and they continued on. After a short drive through the tunnels, they reached a door. The Chief got out, hit the switch… and the door exploded. It managed to slide open just wide enough to let a person through, but there was no way the Warthog would fit. Teana used the cannon to kill the two Combat and two Carrier Forms that came through, and then dismounted. She & the Chief squeezed through the opening and headed right, moving toward the bridge. Halfway across, a swarm of Infection Forms came up over the edges, and a horde of Combat Forms popped up at the other end. The Chief dispatched the IFs with his assault rifle, and Teana fired several 40mm grenades at the Combat Forms, killing the launcher-wielding one and four others. The remaining six were close now, so she switched Mirage to Shotgun Mode, and she & John mowed them down. They crossed to the end, the Chief scavenging assault rifle ammo, and they then moved through the door. They followed the tunnels, eventually coming out to a snowy slope leading upward.

Final Run

They reached the top of the slope. Ahead, Grunts and Elites did battle with yet more Combat Forms, while a Banshee flitted about overhead. They went right, tossing a grenade to kill three Combat Forms and a Carrier Form. The Banshee killed the Infection Forms and then turned its attention to the Spartans. It passed low enough for a plasma grenade stick. Leaving the burning, twisted wreck to crash behind them, they moved toward the battle. A rocket from a Combat Form hit the Shade turret, destroying it, and then a plasma grenade thrown by an Elite stuck to said Combat Form, the blast destroying the launcher as well. The duo hung back, letting the two sides wear each other down, and then ran in and took down the few surviving Covenant, including the Elite Zealot with a concussion rifle. With the area clear, the Chief climbed aboard a Ghost, Teana jumping on and hanging onto the back. They moved on, reaching a frozen river and another Covenant vs. Flood fight, with a squad of Grunts and Jackals led by a red-armored Elite fighting a losing battle against a pack of Combat Forms. Another Flood, this one wielding a fuel rod gun, came out and slaughtered the Covenant team, and the Chief opened fire on it, taking it out of the equation first. The Ghost’s guns made quick work of the others, and the hovercraft moved on.

They reached the next large area and parked atop a boulder, peering through their scopes at what lay ahead between them and a pair of Banshees. Two dozen Grunts, 15 Jackals, seven Skirmishers, a dozen Elites (four of them white-armored), six Brute Captains, two Brute Chieftains, four Shade turrets, two Wraiths, two Hunter pairs, and three Elite Zealots, one of them a Field Marshal. They gave each other a look.

No way in hell.

The Chief hit the boost on the Ghost, going balls-to-the-wall top speed and racing past the confused Covenant and the dozen Flood Combat Forms, heading straight for the Banshees. Once next to them, the two Spartans hopped out, got in the Banshees, and broke for 100 meters up as fast as possible, who-knows-how-many plasma balls & bolts of various size flitting past them as they made their hasty retreat. They quickly outran the Covenant and flew through the canyon, soon reaching the final door. The Sentinels guarding it were quickly shot down. The Banshees landed, and the Spartans dismounted and headed inside, where they found a new surprise: the five Sentinels guarding the final generator had energy shields. Teana switched to dual plasma-bolt pistol/rifle and went to work, blasting three down, while the Chief used his shotgun to destroy the other two. Finally, nothing stood between them and their goal. The Chief walked into the beam, triggering the familiar bang and EMP.

“Final target neutralized” Cortana said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Let’s find a ride and get to the Captain” John said.

“No, that’ll take too long” Cortana replied.

“You have a better idea.”

“There’s a teleportation grid that runs throughout Halo. That’s how the Monitor moves about so quickly. I learned how to tap into the grid while I was in the control center. Unfortunately, each jump requires a rather consequential expenditure of energy.”

“Something tells me I’m not gonna like this.”

“But I’m pretty sure I can pull the power from your suits without permanently damaging anything. And if I link up with Cross Mirage, he and I should be able to access some magic and use that to further stabilize the jump and lessen the energy cost needed to teleport you two. Needless to say, though, I think we should only try this once.”

John looked to Teana, who nodded. “Do it.”

The two AIs linked and began to weave the various energies. Golden rings encircled both Spartans, and a Midchildan magic circle flared to life beneath their feet. A flash of orange and golden light, and they were gone.

Fate jerked involuntarily to the sound of her name, but hearing Linith’s equally frantic cry jolted her out of her own shock.

As a fighting mage, Fate had been drilled in knowing exactly how much strength to use when throwing any object in any direction, and still know precisely where it lands. She dove and rolled across the pavement, snatching up Bardiche mid-roll and burst into the air, transformed.

Ten arrow-bolts materialized behind Fate, shooting towards Linith and striking with an explosion of golden sparks and lightning, tearing a screech from the mountain cat’s throat.

Linith collapsed, her whiskers singed and her head drooping to the ground.

“Fate?” Chrono cried.

She had already crossed over to Karel’s side, checking the limp boy’s pulse. “He’s alright. A few gouges on his neck, but his spine feels solid.” Somehow, Fate kept her voice from trembling. “I’ve captured Linith, but Vivio and my clone both disappeared into the portal.” She took a breath to steady her shaking. “Admiral, I request a relief force to come and pick up the prisoner and Officer Cadet Harlaown, and for permission to pursue the second target.”

“We’re sending in a relief force,” Chrono answered, “but you cannot pursue.” Quickly, because he knew that she would respectfully tell him to stuff it and go after her daughter anyway, Chrono elaborated. “You need a Jewel Seed to pass through, remember?”

“The TSAB vault has—”

“More than that,” interrupted Chrono. “The portal’s backlash as it closed took us by surprise—it fried some of the Claudia’s systems. Zetec did manage to find the quadrant of space the portal led to before the systems crashed, so we’ll head there now. Keep a close eye on the prisoner—the clone may make contact, and we can use that to track her.”

Unlikely, Fate despaired—Precia had a gift with familiars, but her mother had never seen them as anything but a tool. Tools who had no value other than what they were made to achieve for their master.

“Fate.” Chrono’s tone was low, as soft as Fate had ever heard from him. “We’ll find Vivio, I promise.”

It was probably an empty promise, Fate knew. How many of them had she herself made in the past to weeping parents?

But she believed him.

She had to.

**O**

Vivio was in a Heaven in Hell.

Tall cathedrals and spires rose from the crumbled streets, the buildings glinting with glass and jewels and marble, their tops jabbing into a red-clouded sky. The ruins of huge golems and other unidentifiable objects littered the street, their exteriors crusted over with rust and metal dust. If this was Al-Hazard, then Vivio found herself suitably awed and apprehensively reverent.

Either apocalypse had struck this amazing city, or the horrors the gilded surfaces had hid finally broke through to the surface. Whatever the cause, Al-Hazard was ruined, ghostly with the eerie silence of the battlefield grave.

Uncle Yuuno would be so jealous—

Fate-mama! And the cl—

Vivio froze when she felt the warm sizzling curve of a scythe touch her throat.

“Don’t move,” a quiet voice ordered from behind her.

“Please…” Vivio said, trying to keep her throat from moving as much as possible. After their trick, she didn’t want to test this Fate’s temper. “Please…can’t we talk?”

“I’ll talk,” Fate said coldly, although her voice wasn’t quite as stoic as she was pretending to be. “Put your hands slowly behind your back and give me the Jewel.”

Vivio swallowed, twitching as the motion made Bardiche’s blade nip into her skin. Even if she could manage to compute the teleport coordinates by herself and actually open a dimensional portal, she’d need a Jewel Seed to make it through without being swallowed into the abyss of dimensional space.

Fate-mama would never kill anyone.

But…

The blade jabbed into Vivio’s neck, a sharp line of pain stinging under her chin.

“Now.”

…this wasn’t Fate-mama.

Slowly, Vivio raised her hands, then put them behind her back. She could guess at where the doppelganger was standing and try a surprise attack, but if Vivio was a fraction off or too slow, she may end up headless. Hadn’t they been taught never to give in to criminals? But they’d also been instructed to do anything they can to stay alive…

Vivio opened her gauntlet, letting the Jewel Seed lie on her palm.

Lightning quick, it was snatched out of her hand.

“Now banish your Barrier Jacket, and throw your device to the side.”

“I can banish my Jacket, but I need my device on me,” Vivio lied, glad that Fate was behind her. No matter how hard Aunt Hayate tried to teach her, Vivio’s face always gave away when she was lying, although she had mastered her aunt’s sincere, seemingly guileless tone. “It helps me keep a health condition in check.”

Vivio winced sheepishly. She should have expected that question. “Ah…Olivie Segbrecht.”

Fate frowned, her mind clearly working over the name. Like usual, Vivio could tell the moment she had worked out who that was, as Fate’s eyes widened.

“The Sankt Kaiser?”

“Yes,” sighed Vivio, kicking a small chunk of rock with a shoe. The rock clattered and struck a heap of drones, causing something to glow eerily. Or it could have just been her imagination. It was probably her overactive imagination reminding her of all the books she’d read about Lost Logias, and the fact that she was now stuck in the real-life version of…

…Actually, the irony there was that the usual saying ended with “of Al-Hazard”.

Something closed in Fate’s expression, and the lightning mage gave Vivio a little impatient prod in the back with Bardiche as if to move them along faster down the street as well as move through the current conversation to its end. “It doesn’t matter—Enforcer Fate’s memories were Alicia-nee-san’s too.”

“…Alright.” Vivio managed to stop herself from adding a childish If you say so. She wasn’t sure how it would matter, if this Fate had her Fate-mama’s memories or Alicia’s, but Vivio had the feeling that it did matter somehow.

The area darkened suddenly, and Vivio looked up as the blooded sky boiled over with deep purple clouds, casting long shadows on them.

The street was rising up, and there were fewer crumbling buildings around them as they walked on. At the top of this small hill towers staked out the corners of a glittering palace, the tall arches and jagged walls making Vivio feel very small and vulnerable as she stared at it from within its shadow.

What kind of kings had ruled this land before Al-Hazard fell? The entire city looked like a collection of relics from a creative, glorious race, but then why had this utopian-like city fallen into such ruins? This eerie crystalline and stone palace gave Vivio the shivers.

She couldn’t help thinking about the wild speculations that Al-Hazard had been a land of gods.

What powers did Precia Testarossa find here? What could Precia do with those powers?

“From earlier,” Fate clarified as they approached the great crystal gates of the palace. “I’m not ashamed of being a clone. I already knew—or thought—that I was Alicia-nee-san’s clone.”

“Then why the weird reaction?”

Fate hesitated for an instant, having second thoughts about confiding to a stranger and an enemy, but she had brought the topic up again because she clearly had wanted someone to confess to. “I thought that I had been born as Alicia-nee-san’s sister…her twin. But now, I’m just…I’m just that other Fate’s clone, I have part of her memories…” She trailed off as the tall gates opened, the hinges complaining their use in a series of high-pitched screeching.

The hall loomed dozens of meters above their heads, the large space adding to the chill that hung heavily in the air. Vivio hugged her arms to her chest as goosebumps rose on her skin. A soft hand patted her cheek as Kris snuggled closer to her neck.

Their steps echoed in the emptiness, the sounds travelling down the corridor and disappearing in the blackness hundreds of feet away. Through an open door to Vivio’s right she caught sight of a massive throne hall, gleaming with broken glass and crystal strewn on the gold-tiled floor before they moved on past.

Bardiche’s head nudged Vivio’s shoulder, stopping her next to a set of carved doors. The slight hominess of the patterns made Vivio guess that this must be a bedroom of some kind, maybe even the chambers of the ruler.

Fate put one hand on the doors where they met in a nearly seamless line. Her brow was furrowed slightly, and her lip curled slightly where she was biting it.

“It just feels like…just a little…” Fate struggled to find a way to voice her thoughts, a mixture of dejection, sadness and what Vivio thought was fear in her face. Vivio couldn’t move her gaze away, transfixed on the vulnerability. Quietly, almost guiltily, Fate said, “…like I’m just a replacement for her.”

The bedroom doors rumbled, swinging open slowly and releasing a cold draft that made Vivio shiver, and shiver again when she looked into the room.

**O**

It only took three minutes and twenty seconds for the relief force to arrive. Fate knew this because she had been checking her time display every ten seconds between pacing along the alley, checking Karel’s vitals and exchanging looks with Linith, who was still bound with lightning rings. The mountain cat familiar had regained consciousness minutes earlier and was currently quiet, curled up on her bound paws as much as she could in a predator’s crouch.

Despite having the same name and the same animal form, Fate could immediately tell that this was not her Linith. This Linith had a youthful strength while Fate’s Linith had had a mature intelligence.

A different guardian for a different purpose.

“I knew a Linith too,” Fate said quietly to her. Linith began to growl, but Fate continued. “She took care of me, and taught me magic.”

The rumbling growl in Linith’s throat lessened slightly.

“Please,” Fate appealed. “Will you help us help her? If the solution does not harm anyone, I promise that I will do anything in my power to help.” She knelt down, keeping a respectful distance away from Linith’s claws. “In my childhood, I had to search for the Jewel Seeds for Precia as well, and Mother hadn’t been…easy…on me. Will you help?”

Linith eyed her with narrowed green eyes, her ears flat against her skull. “You,” she said finally, drawing her lips upwards to expose white fangs, “are not my Fate.”

If only Fate had brought Arf with her—maybe Arf could have talked this Linith into acting for the good of her master. But more than that…Fate wanted the old familiarity, to have someone who understood and had lived out that part of her life with her.

Some who could remind Fate that this was not her past…That she was Fate T. Harlaown and not Fate Testa—

“Fate-chan!”

That voice…Fate looked up, and sure enough, she saw Nanoha descending from the sky towards her. Nanoha landed with perfect precision right next to Fate, smiling her uplifting smile that never failed to raise Fate’s spirits.

“Nanoha, how did you—”

“Chrono-kun asked me to come, so I came.” Nanoha glanced at Linith, then at Karel, who was picked up by the two officers who had come with Nanoha. “How—”

“I’m sorry, Nanoha,” Fate interrupted her, hanging her head and staring at the ground. “I shouldn’t have gotten so involved with her, or else I would have noticed Linith moving, and then Karel wouldn’t have gotten hurt and Vivio wouldn’t have vanished. I’m so sorry...”

“I heard,” Nanoha said, but rather than sounding disappointed Fate heard worry in her friend’s voice. “But I trust you, Fate-chan, remember? I know that you’ll find a way to get Vivio home safely.”

“Then why are you here?” Fate asked, confused.

Nanoha smiled softly, switching Raising Heart to her other hand so that she could clasp fingers with Fate. “Chrono-kun called me for you. If you need someone to talk to, someone to give you a hug, someone to watch your back in a fight—I’m here for you, Fate-chan.”

And just like that, Fate felt the miserable anxiety drain away. Nanoha reminded her of what she had gained over the years, and even if what Fate had now wasn’t what she had hoped for when she had been a lonely child, she loved it. Fate T. Harlaown had moved past regrets, and she felt almost sheepish for having forgotten that.

All she did in return was squeeze Nanoha’s hand and say, “Thank you.”

Nanoha’s smile widened and she squeezed back, and Fate knew that her oldest friend understood.

**O**

A king’s bedroom was nearly as large as the Claudia’s bridge.

The walls stretched upwards twice as high as a normal room, and the pillars extending from the walls provided surfaces for ancient tapestries to hang from. The metallic hues made the room feel cold although the floor itself radiated warmth. A massive bed had been shoved into the corner, untouched, while the rest of the furniture clustered at the center of the room.

Vivio knew that she was gaping like a beached fish as she stared at the massive tank laid on its side, the glass vibrating slightly with a low hum and emitting a dim light.

The young girl curled up in a foetal position wasn’t another Fate.

This was Alicia.

All the blood drained from Vivio’s face when she saw the woman sitting beside the tank, caressing the glass as if the woman imagined that she could actually touch the girl inside. A woman with long grey hair and sunken purple eyes—Vivio had seen pictures of her while she had been smiling and happy.

She was smiling now.

Precia Testarossa…

To Nanoha-mama, she had been an enemy. To Fate-mama…she had been “Mother”. So what exactly did that make her to Vivio? It had been easy to listen to Fate-mama’s forgiving memories when Precia had just been a name instead of a reality.

Vivio’s first thought was, Vivio Takamachi—your mamas beat Precia once, so you can’t do any less. And her second was, This is my grandmother!

Precia stirred, pulling her eyes away from her daughter with effort to look at the open door.

“Takamachi…” Precia repeated, musing over the name. Vivio couldn’t read her expression, the nervous tension making her twitchy.

“She’s one of the TSAB officers who tried to stop me on Ruwella,” Fate supplied.

“Hm.” Precia looked at Vivio. One of her hands paused in its slow stroking of the glass and adjusted a small blanket that was draped on her lap. She didn’t look very well, and Vivio wondered why. Maybe she could use that to her advantage—she still had Sacred Heart, and if she could outmanoeuvre Fate she might manage to get away far enough to hide. But there was no point in running if she couldn’t find a way to teleport back, or if Uncle Chrono hadn’t sent anyone after her yet. Besides, even as Vivio looked back at Precia and saw how the woman coughed wetly into one hand, she couldn’t forget the sight of her Fate-mama collapsed in a hole punched into the pavement from a cross-dimensional attack.

“That’s my Nanoha-mama,” Vivio declared, blushing at the hint of self-deprecation that had slipped into her proud retort.

“I thought that you said Enforcer Fate was your mother,” Fate said from beside Vivio.

“Fate?” A slow, crooked smile spread across Precia’s lips.

Vivio swallowed, fighting to keep her knees from shaking. “They’re both my mothers.” Should she be telling her captors such things? TSAB protocol said that she should only tell them her name and her rank, and nothing else. However…this was her grandmother, in a way. And also her…whatever this Fate’s relation to her was. This was her…her family.

“You’re Fate’s daughter?”

Next to her, Vivio saw Fate flinch slightly—a twinge of hurt in her face at hearing her name used that way?

Vivio nodded.

Precia regarded her closely, then smiled, her face softening. “Then you’re my granddaughter, aren’t you?” She pointed at the chair across from her, placed at the foot of Alicia’s glass tube. “Have a seat.”

“…Thank you, ma’am.” Nervously, Vivio stepped forward and perched on the edge of the chair, locking her hands on her lap around Kris to hide her unease, and so that she could quickly transform if needed.

Fate didn’t sit. “Oka-san, I have to go save Linith. The TSAB captured her before we could escape together.”

“Sit by Alicia for a while, Fate.” Precia leaned back on the couch, letting the cushions support her weight. She held up a hand, cutting off Fate’s confused protest. “Don’t worry, Fate—Linith can take care of herself.”

Vivio saw Fate acquiesce and sit on the floor next to the floating Alicia, whispering something to her sister. But she had been watching Precia the whole time, and Vivio felt a cold shock at the odd languid expression on Precia’s face as the old woman said satisfactorily, “We don’t have to worry about Linith.”

**O**

Nanoha would have liked to hug her Fate-chan, but the sound of a hoarse gasp behind her interrupted the moment. She had only seen Fate’s face go that pale once before, and would have never wanted to see it again.

"What's wrong?" Fate cried, rushing over and waving a hand to dissipate the binds around Linith, who had shifted from her cat form into that of a young woman, sprawled out on the pavement. Nanoha bounded over too, and was about to reach out for Linith but the cat-eared familiar groaned, managing to sit up weakly.

Linith glanced down, a small sad smile on her lips as her bangs hid her eyes. "Ah, so that's it then." She put a trembling hand on her chest, her fingers already ghostly translucent. "The contract is done."

“What?” said Nanoha.

"You're disappearing?" Fate exclaimed, her face anguished. She reached out a hand but stopped just before her fingers touched Linith's shoulder.

"It's done," Linith said quietly, her breaths coming slower and slower. Nanoha made a small distressed sound in her throat, and caught Linith's hand as it fluttered weakly at them. The dying familiar's touch was cold and tingling, like touching pure magic as her physical body turned back into the magic that had given her a second life.

Linith slumped, a weary sigh escaping her cracked lips. "So we have found it..."

"What have you found?" Fate asked, a mixture of frustration and compassion on her face.

"The means," Linith whispered, "to bring the young lady back. Not just the right Jewel...but...the means..."

"What do you mean?" Fate cried, but it was too late.

Nanoha felt all sensation between her cupped hands vanish, her arms falling uselessly to her sides as Linith disappeared, vanishing into nothing as if she had never been there at all. And she heard Fate groan, the sound an agonized whimper as the blonde collapsed on her knees, her head in her hands. Nanoha knelt and hugged her tightly, pressing Fate's bowed head to her chest.

"Not again," she heard Fate moan, before starting to cry.

"Fate-chan—"

“We have to find them." Fate pulled herself up, pale and shaking. "You heard what Linith said...Mother found the means. Linith didn't disappear when I handed my clone the Jewel."

Oh…it probably wasn’t a good idea to bait Precia. But nothing happened, or at least Precia acted like nothing had happened.

“Aren’t you curious about your lost family?”

“Kind of,” Vivio conceded honestly. She looped her ankles together, swinging her legs slightly. “Why were you so cruel to my mom? Fate-mama?”

Precia looked disapproving of the question, her lined brow furrowing, but she didn’t appear too angry. “Cruel? You must be mistaken.”

“Um…I doubt it.”

“I wanted to make her strong.” Precia sighed, and the sense of theatrics made Vivio more doubtful of Precia’s answers. “It’s a pity that she had been swayed by weaker associations. Besides, she was the second child—you don’t want to make the same mistakes with your children twice, after all.”

“Yes, you want to learn from your mistakes.” Her purple eyes drifted over to the clone Fate, who was still murmuring to Alicia. “I didn’t let my new daughter make the same foolish mistakes Linith allowed.”

“So Linith—this new Linith—she’s your familiar, and not Fate-chan’s?”

“I said it already, didn’t I?” Annoyed, Precia coughed lightly. “I didn’t make the same mistakes this time.”

Arf had been the best thing for her Fate-mama, Vivio knew! Anyone could tell, especially when they brought it up to Arf herself, and just seeing Arf’s sad and self-guilt over things she didn’t have the power to do in the past told the story.

“Arf loved Fate-mama, when you didn’t,” accused Vivio. It was uncomfortable, speaking this way to an adult, to her grandmother, but Nanoha-mama had always told her to be honest about her feelings.

“That’s not the case now.”

Vivio squinted, holding Kris closer to herself. Precia didn’t look like she was lying…and clearly, the clone Fate really loved Precia like a mother, so that means that it’s not a lie, right? “Do you love Fate-chan? But you’re using her like you used Fate-mama, to find the Jewel Seeds for you.”

“She’s doing it of her own free will,” replied Precia, glancing sideways to smile in that motherly pride way at the back of Fate’s head. “My Fate wants to save her older sister.” Precia turned to look at Vivio, her gaze intense and burning with passion. “Don’t you want to save your aunt? To save Alicia too…we’re all family, after all.”

Vivio hesitated. She looked over at the encased Alicia. The curled up girl looked exactly like her Fate-mama…of course, they had to be, since her mama was a clone of Alicia…and so was this Fate, but with Fate-mama’s memories. Three people with the same face, but they weren’t the same. But still, they were all the same family…

“But we can’t,” Vivio said finally. “Magic can’t bring back the dead. Everyone knows that.” It was one of the first lessons any mage got—although of course, in elementary school they were taught that fact through fables and little stories and such. It was only through her reading in the Infinity Library that Vivio got to see what kind of trouble had been caused in the past by mages who tried to overcome that impossible barrier.

Precia Testarossa had been widely cited, in fact.

“Our current magic,” Precia countered, smiling widely. She waved one hand about the air, the jewel at her wrist flashing. “But look where we are! Al-Hazard, the ultimate pinnacle of magic…where the ancients performed miracles that were nothing but ordinary feats to them. You saw the city—even ruined, look at what they had achieved!” She chuckled, the sound hoarse from her damaged throat. “Twenty years ago, I had decided to find the path here because I knew then, just as I know now, that with the right kind of magic, we can bring back the dead.”

“You can’t!” Vivio protested, perching on the edge of her seat. It felt better to argue when her feet were planted on the floor, since they had been dangling off the edge of the chair before. “You even mentioned it yourself in your earlier dissertations about familiars, Precia-san—that even familiar magic didn’t truly bring back the dead, but captures a soul right before true death to implant into a new body. Resurrecting the dead is impossible, and even if it was…” Vivio hesitated, losing her wind once she had drifted from evidence into opinion. “…dying is just another part of life. We have to learn to let them go.”

Precia tilted her head, the motion reminding Vivio of an eagle sizing up its prey. “And who taught you that lesson? Your mother?” The mocking tone in her voice made Vivio scowl. Then something serious and very sane entered Precia’s eyes as she said, “If you were dead, do you really believe that your mother wouldn’t do anything to save you?”

…If Precia hadn’t asked her in that way, Vivio could have easily deflected it. But she was aware that Fate had given up pretending not to eavesdrop, and was watching her too, waiting for an answer.

They were a lot alike, that Fate and Vivio…both of them weren’t truly their mothers’ daughters, but yet at the same time, that family bond was there. Undeniably there.

Would her mamas do anything to save Vivio’s life?

“…I don’t know,” Vivio admitted. Kris twitched under the pressure of her tight grip around his middle. “But if it was going to hurt someone, then I know that they wouldn’t!”

“Who am I hurting?” Precia asked mildly, smiling again. “Think about it, my granddaughter—all I need is the right Jewel Seed for Alicia. Rather than harming someone, I am restoring a life that had been stolen!”

Vivio bit her lip, trembling.

Precia did have a point…nowhere in the books Vivio read mentioned why it was bad to try and bring back the dead. All the literature seemed to agree that it was an impossibility, and most attempts had been a mixture of superstitious rituals mixed with sacrifices. But if Precia was right…if Al-Hazard technology could really revive Alicia without harming anyone…then was that the right thing to do?

It took every ounce of Nanoha’s persuasive skills to get Fate to agree to retire for the night to her quarters. Neither she nor Chrono wanted to make it an order, since all that would do is load more anxiety and conflicting feelings on Fate, so Nanoha had slowly and persuasively coaxed Fate into getting some rest to be ready for a rescue mission.

She was glad that Chrono had Amy call her.

“Fate-chan, I’m kind of tired…join me?” Nanoha held up the covers to Fate’s bunk, having already curled up under the blankets and was propping herself up on one arm. The bed hadn’t quite been made with two people in mind, but they’d manage somehow.

Fate hesitated, pausing in her pacing. She had changed into—more like Nanoha had changed her into—casual clothes, but held herself rigid enough to still be in uniform. Apprehension flickered in her red eyes, and Nanoha fought to keep herself from blushing when she realized why Fate was hesitating; blushing would probably accidentally confirm Fate’s thoughts! Nanoha tried to inject the warmest, most comforting and platonic tones into her voice as she elaborated, “I’m worried about you, Fate-chan—I think you could use some sleep. Please?”

Fate bit her lip, then sighed and walked over, letting Nanoha cuddle her close and stroke her hair. Without Nanoha’s asking, Raising Heart dimmed the lights down before flying to rest beside Bardiche on the bedside shelf.

They lay there in the dim room, silent.

“…Fate-chan? Do you want to talk about it?”

A sigh. “About what part?”

“Any part you want.”

“…”

“…”

“I know that I shouldn’t think this way…but I keep asking myself: What did I do wrong?” A wet tear dripped onto Nanoha’s neck as Fate sniffed, laying her cheek on Nanoha’s shoulder. “Why did Mother love Alicia and that clone, but not me?”

Nanoha wordlessly began rubbing Fate’s back as the blonde trembled.

“Why didn’t Mother try to find me, if she had realized that it was alright to love someone other than Alicia-nee-san? Instead, she…she made herself another daughter to love. Nanoha, I would have forgiven Mother. I already have.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Why did she call her Fate? I’ve been thinking and thinking about that, and I just don’t know. Mother…she had said that she hated me. She didn’t want to call me after Alicia, who she loved. But then why did she name her after me?”

“Maybe…” Nanoha paused, not sure if she should be speculating or not. “Maybe Precia wanted to be reminded of you.” She left it at that—knowing her own feelings towards Precia, Nanoha would probably extrapolate a more negative interpretation. That wasn’t what Fate needed at the moment.

“Nanoha,” whispered Fate.

“Yes?” she answered just as softly.

“If…if I had been her…if I had known that Mother had wanted the Jewel Seeds to try and save Alicia…”

“…For my sister? If I had known, Nanoha…” Fate pushed herself up slightly so that they were looking at each other, her eyes a deep black-red in the darkness. “I would have done anything in my power to get those Jewel Seeds. Even if it meant…fighting anyone who tried to stop me. I probably would have hurt you, Nanoha. And I wouldn’t have cared.”

“You would have cared,” Nanoha said, brushing some blonde locks behind Fate’s ear. “Even if you had known about Alicia, you’re a good person, Fate-chan.”

“I don’t know,” Fate said in a small voice, her tone shaky. “If I had failed Mother, failed Alicia-nee-san…right and wrong wouldn’t have…mattered…”

“I believe in you.” Nanoha reached out in the dark and clasped Fate’s hand. “I believe in you, Fate.”

“Nanoha…if I was her…if I had grown up the way she lived, then I might not have taken your hand after all.” Fate bit her lip, shame etched into her face like a brand. “I might not have let myself try to see your side of things, if I’d had something so important to fight for.”

Nanoha repressed a shiver.

It was exactly that truth that had Fate dread what Vivio would be facing.

She didn’t need Fate to finish her confession. The haunted guilt in Fate’s eyes told it all.

If I had grown up with Mother loving me…

For my family…

…I would do anything they needed of me.

**O**

Vivio didn’t know how to answer.

So she dodged the question by asking one of her own. “Do you really think that it’s best for Alicia to bring her back? What if…you’re the one who needs her more?”

Precia drew herself back, affronted. “This has never been about me,” she practically hissed, her body twitching in agitation. “Alicia didn’t deserve to suffer for my mistakes! She was just a girl…I would do anything to have traded my life for hers…” Sadness flooded into Precia’s voice, and Vivio knew for certain that it was not an act. “I lived my years, made my choices…but Alicia had her choices taken from her. I will get them back for her.”

It shouldn’t be right…what Precia was doing just couldn’t be the right thing to do. It was against the law. But…even though her Nanoha-mama had always told Vivio to be a good, responsible citizen, undoubtedly Nanoha had taught her that doing the right thing was more important than worrying about whether it was against the rules or not. All of Vivio’s aunts and uncles seemed to live by the same philosophy—Nanoha-mama had shown her way to all of them before.

Surely, giving a young girl another chance at life had to be the right thing to do?

Didn’t Nanoha-mama give Fate-mama that same chance, fourteen years ago?

Vivio saw Precia smile, and she realized that her wavering conviction was probably written all over her face. Quickly she schooled her expression, but too late.

“Now that Fate has gotten us the Jewel Seed we need,” Precia said, waving a hand at the clone sitting on the floor, “All we need to do is find the correct method to infuse the Jewel into Alicia’s body.” A small coughing fit interrupted Precia, making Fate spring to her feet and quickly pour a glass of water for her mother. Precia gave her a small smile and drank, letting her breathing ease.

Vivio quickly sat back down—she had jumped up too when Precia had started coughing.

“Thank you, dear,” Precia patted Fate’s head, and the blonde smiled, her whole face lighting up. However, concern still shone in Fate’s eyes as she took the glass back from Precia’s trembling hand.

“This is absolutely critical—my poor Alicia…” Precia fixed her eyes on Alicia’s tank, the sickly pale light emitting from the glass casting a greenish glow across Precia’s face. “It’s been too long…We must make it work. I won’t get another chance.”

“From…” Vivio paused, trying to wet her dry mouth. “From what I’ve read about the Jewel Seeds, they fulfill the wishes of a living animal or person. I don’t think it would quite work for Alicia, since she’s…well…dead.”

“Yes,” Precia agreed bitterly. “But the theory should still be sound…the release of power from an invoked Lost Logia should be more than enough to provide the kind of magic needed to provide a new life. But I don’t think that there’s been a case of a Jewel Seed successfully merging with a human.”

Vivio frowned, working the problem over in her head. “I’ve never heard of any either, but it’s happened with Relics.”

“Relics?”

“Yeah. They’re Lost Logia too, but they’re compatible with people.” Vivio shivered, looking down. The memories were still fresh, even if most of the terror had been in her past. “Jail Scaglietti had told Lutecia-chan that the right Relic could revive Megane-san, who had been in a coma. Well, he might have been lying to her though…”

“But I assume that it hadn’t actually been done before?” Precia asked, sighing in disappointment.

“Well, actually, it has,” Vivio told her. “During the JS Incident, Jail…” She gripped Kris tighter and took a breath. “Jail had put one inside me, so that I could power the Saint’s Cradle for him. It…hurt a lot. But he did do it, and I think he did it to Lutecia-chan too.”

Precia went still. “You had a Lost Logia placed inside of you…successfully?”

A chill went down Vivio’s spine. “Um…yes,” she said tentatively.

But Precia wasn’t looking at her any longer, having rose from the couch and was pacing in a limping, twitchy manner. Fate was clearly worried, but she didn’t seem to dare break her mother’s concentration on something.

“I see, I see…the girl has made it all so clear now…perhaps my method had been wrong…Relic or Jewel Seed, they are both Lost Logia, so maybe it isn’t the source but the way…” Precia’s hands quivered as she spoke to herself, clutching at her chest as if trying to contain her excitement or another coughing fit. “That may be why my previous attempts have all failed…not a matter of the human subjects, or the Jewel serial number, but my procedure was faulty…but how to correct it? A prototype, yes…” Precia stopped, her gray hair hanging in long limp strands before her face. Then she tilted her head, her purple eyes peering brightly through her hair straight at Vivio. “Yes…I should examine a specimen where the procedure was successful…”

Bam! Vivio tripped backwards over her chair, sprawling over the arm and rolling to her feet, putting space between herself and the eagerly watching Precia. “W…What?” she stammered nervously. “Precia-san…”

“No, I think I’ll pass, sorry,” Vivio gulped. She stepped back involuntarily, and only realized that her retreating towards the door would probably set Precia off after the fully crazed fury exploded in Precia’s gaze.

“How dare you defy your grandmother!” Precia screamed, her staff materializing in her right hand. “Come back here at once!”

Fate had already been in her Barrier Jacket, so in the time that it took Vivio’s Barrier Jacket to fully form Fate had already took to the air, brandishing Bardiche.
“Arc Saber.”

Vivio tucked and rolled, letting the yellow blade arc over her and strike the wall. She charged straight for Fate, leaping into the air herself. Dodging two sets of lightning binds, Vivio attacked with a flurry of punches, hitting Fate’s auto-shield with some hits and being parried by Bardiche’s staff with others.

“Photon Lancer.”

Vivio closed in again, getting behind the forming energy spheres and so making Fate’s attack useless. Unlike her Fate-mama’s upgraded Plasma Lancer, Vivio knew that the shots from Photon Lancer only travelled in one direction, so she got in close and struck Fate with her armoured fists.

“Accel Smash!”

Fate yelped when Vivio slugged her in the stomach, barely twisting out of Vivio’s next attack and diving towards the floor. The room wasn’t large enough for Fate to loop her, so Vivio followed, cutting Fate off and launching a kick that nearly tore Bardiche out of her opponent’s hands.

Fate was going to rush her, get in close to use her scythe. With Alicia’s tank and Precia so close, there was no way Fate would risk using a shooting spell. Vivio could use that to her advantage.

Just as Vivio expected, Fate blitzed towards Vivio, Bardiche’s scythe form carving upwards towards her face. Vivio made a sharp crescent turn and thrust out one gauntleted hand.

A close range shot should neutralize her!

“DIVINE BUSTER!”

Fate immediately dodged, but the shot wouldn’t have hit her anyway.

Fate’s Sonic Move had moved her faster than Vivio had estimated. Her Divine Buster shot behind Fate’s fluttering cape, shredding the edge into black and red strips.

But the beam kept going.

Even this short range version had more than enough space in the small room to keep going at full power.

“No!” Precia and Vivio screamed.

The rainbow beam struck Alicia’s tank—and promptly exploded in a cloud of glass and fluid and smoke.

Spoiler for Author's Note:

Ooooooh, someone's in trouble!

About the Linith situation...I'll go back and smooth out the previous chapters to make sure I'm clear that this is a big, non-housecat sized version of Linith for my final draft ^^.

No flames for the unintentional NanoFate scene please! It just...happened , but it fit so I left it in. Besides, it's not like I made any conclusive statement about the exact nature of their relationship anyway, right?

Chapter 4 may take me a bit of time; it depends on if I get talked out of certain nefarious plans I might have for editing the last chapter, hehehe ....(j/k, but I'm not very happy with it, so I'll need to do intensive editing and I won't have much time for it this week. I'll do my best!)

Fate jerked involuntarily to the sound of her name, but hearing Linith’s equally frantic cry jolted her out of her own shock.

As a fighting mage, Fate had been drilled in knowing exactly how much strength to use when throwing any object in any direction, and still know precisely where it lands. She dove and rolled across the pavement, snatching up Bardiche mid-roll and burst into the air, transformed.

Ten arrow-bolts materialized behind Fate, shooting towards Linith and striking with an explosion of golden sparks and lightning, tearing a screech from the mountain cat’s throat.

Linith collapsed, her whiskers singed and her head drooping to the ground.

“Fate?” Chrono cried.

She had already crossed over to Karel’s side, checking the limp boy’s pulse. “He’s alright. A few gouges on his neck, but his spine feels solid.” Somehow, Fate kept her voice from trembling. “I’ve captured Linith, but Vivio and my clone both disappeared into the portal.” She took a breath to steady her shaking. “Admiral, I request a relief force to come and pick up the prisoner and Officer Cadet Harlaown, and for permission to pursue the second target.”

“We’re sending in a relief force,” Chrono answered, “but you cannot pursue.” Quickly, because he knew that she would respectfully tell him to stuff it and go after her daughter anyway, Chrono elaborated. “You need a Jewel Seed to pass through, remember?”

“The TSAB vault has—”

“More than that,” interrupted Chrono. “The portal’s backlash as it closed took us by surprise—it fried some of the Claudia’s systems. Zetec did manage to find the quadrant of space the portal led to before the systems crashed, so we’ll head there now. Keep a close eye on the prisoner—the clone may make contact, and we can use that to track her.”

Unlikely, Fate despaired—Precia had a gift with familiars, but her mother had never seen them as anything but a tool. Tools who had no value other than what they were made to achieve for their master.

“Fate.” Chrono’s tone was low, as soft as Fate had ever heard from him. “We’ll find Vivio, I promise.”

It was probably an empty promise, Fate knew. How many of them had she herself made in the past to weeping parents?

But she believed him.

She had to.

**O**

Vivio was in a Heaven in Hell.

Tall cathedrals and spires rose from the crumbled streets, the buildings glinting with glass and jewels and marble, their tops jabbing into a red-clouded sky. The ruins of huge golems and other unidentifiable objects littered the street, their exteriors crusted over with rust and metal dust. If this was Al-Hazard, then Vivio found herself suitably awed and apprehensively reverent.

Either apocalypse had struck this amazing city, or the horrors the gilded surfaces had hid finally broke through to the surface. Whatever the cause, Al-Hazard was ruined, ghostly with the eerie silence of the battlefield grave.

Uncle Yuuno would be so jealous—

Fate-mama! And the cl—

Vivio froze when she felt the warm sizzling curve of a scythe touch her throat.

“Don’t move,” a quiet voice ordered from behind her.

“Please…” Vivio said, trying to keep her throat from moving as much as possible. After their trick, she didn’t want to test this Fate’s temper. “Please…can’t we talk?”

“I’ll talk,” Fate said coldly, although her voice wasn’t quite as stoic as she was pretending to be. “Put your hands slowly behind your back and give me the Jewel.”

Vivio swallowed, twitching as the motion made Bardiche’s blade nip into her skin. Even if she could manage to compute the teleport coordinates by herself and actually open a dimensional portal, she’d need a Jewel Seed to make it through without being swallowed into the abyss of dimensional space.

Fate-mama would never kill anyone.

But…

The blade jabbed into Vivio’s neck, a sharp line of pain stinging under her chin.

“Now.”

…this wasn’t Fate-mama.

Slowly, Vivio raised her hands, then put them behind her back. She could guess at where the doppelganger was standing and try a surprise attack, but if Vivio was a fraction off or too slow, she may end up headless. Hadn’t they been taught never to give in to criminals? But they’d also been instructed to do anything they can to stay alive…

Vivio opened her gauntlet, letting the Jewel Seed lie on her palm.

Lightning quick, it was snatched out of her hand.

“Now banish your Barrier Jacket, and throw your device to the side.”

“I can banish my Jacket, but I need my device on me,” Vivio lied, glad that Fate was behind her. No matter how hard Aunt Hayate tried to teach her, Vivio’s face always gave away when she was lying, although she had mastered her aunt’s sincere, seemingly guileless tone. “It helps me keep a health condition in check.”

Vivio winced sheepishly. She should have expected that question. “Ah…Olivie Segbrecht.”

Fate frowned, her mind clearly working over the name. Like usual, Vivio could tell the moment she had worked out who that was, as Fate’s eyes widened.

“The Sankt Kaiser?”

“Yes,” sighed Vivio, kicking a small chunk of rock with a shoe. The rock clattered and struck a heap of drones, causing something to glow eerily. Or it could have just been her imagination. It was probably her overactive imagination reminding her of all the books she’d read about Lost Logias, and the fact that she was now stuck in the real-life version of…

…Actually, the irony there was that the usual saying ended with “of Al-Hazard”.

Something closed in Fate’s expression, and the lightning mage gave Vivio a little impatient prod in the back with Bardiche as if to move them along faster down the street as well as move through the current conversation to its end. “It doesn’t matter—Enforcer Fate’s memories were Alicia-nee-san’s too.”

“…Alright.” Vivio managed to stop herself from adding a childish If you say so. She wasn’t sure how it would matter, if this Fate had her Fate-mama’s memories or Alicia’s, but Vivio had the feeling that it did matter somehow.

The area darkened suddenly, and Vivio looked up as the blooded sky boiled over with deep purple clouds, casting long shadows on them.

The street was rising up, and there were fewer crumbling buildings around them as they walked on. At the top of this small hill towers staked out the corners of a glittering palace, the tall arches and jagged walls making Vivio feel very small and vulnerable as she stared at it from within its shadow.

What kind of kings had ruled this land before Al-Hazard fell? The entire city looked like a collection of relics from a creative, glorious race, but then why had this utopian-like city fallen into such ruins? This eerie crystalline and stone palace gave Vivio the shivers.

She couldn’t help thinking about the wild speculations that Al-Hazard had been a land of gods.

What powers did Precia Testarossa find here? What could Precia do with those powers?

“From earlier,” Fate clarified as they approached the great crystal gates of the palace. “I’m not ashamed of being a clone. I already knew—or thought—that I was Alicia-nee-san’s clone.”

“Then why the weird reaction?”

Fate hesitated for an instant, having second thoughts about confiding to a stranger and an enemy, but she had brought the topic up again because she clearly had wanted someone to confess to. “I thought that I had been born as Alicia-nee-san’s sister…her twin. But now, I’m just…I’m just that other Fate’s clone, I have part of her memories…” She trailed off as the tall gates opened, the hinges complaining their use in a series of high-pitched screeching.

The hall loomed dozens of meters above their heads, the large space adding to the chill that hung heavily in the air. Vivio hugged her arms to her chest as goosebumps rose on her skin. A soft hand patted her cheek as Kris snuggled closer to her neck.

Their steps echoed in the emptiness, the sounds travelling down the corridor and disappearing in the blackness hundreds of feet away. Through an open door to Vivio’s right she caught sight of a massive throne hall, gleaming with broken glass and crystal strewn on the gold-tiled floor before they moved on past.

Bardiche’s head nudged Vivio’s shoulder, stopping her next to a set of carved doors. The slight hominess of the patterns made Vivio guess that this must be a bedroom of some kind, maybe even the chambers of the ruler.

Fate put one hand on the doors where they met in a nearly seamless line. Her brow was furrowed slightly, and her lip curled slightly where she was biting it.

“It just feels like…just a little…” Fate struggled to find a way to voice her thoughts, a mixture of dejection, sadness and what Vivio thought was fear in her face. Vivio couldn’t move her gaze away, transfixed on the vulnerability. Quietly, almost guiltily, Fate said, “…like I’m just a replacement for her.”

The bedroom doors rumbled, swinging open slowly and releasing a cold draft that made Vivio shiver, and shiver again when she looked into the room.

**O**

It only took three minutes and twenty seconds for the relief force to arrive. Fate knew this because she had been checking her time display every ten seconds between pacing along the alley, checking Karel’s vitals and exchanging looks with Linith, who was still bound with lightning rings. The mountain cat familiar had regained consciousness minutes earlier and was currently quiet, curled up on her bound paws as much as she could in a predator’s crouch.

Despite having the same name and the same animal form, Fate could immediately tell that this was not her Linith. This Linith had a youthful strength while Fate’s Linith had had a mature intelligence.

A different guardian for a different purpose.

“I knew a Linith too,” Fate said quietly to her. Linith began to growl, but Fate continued. “She took care of me, and taught me magic.”

The rumbling growl in Linith’s throat lessened slightly.

“Please,” Fate appealed. “Will you help us help her? If the solution does not harm anyone, I promise that I will do anything in my power to help.” She knelt down, keeping a respectful distance away from Linith’s claws. “In my childhood, I had to search for the Jewel Seeds for Precia as well, and Mother hadn’t been…easy…on me. Will you help?”

Linith eyed her with narrowed green eyes, her ears flat against her skull. “You,” she said finally, drawing her lips upwards to expose white fangs, “are not my Fate.”

If only Fate had brought Arf with her—maybe Arf could have talked this Linith into acting for the good of her master. But more than that…Fate wanted the old familiarity, to have someone who understood and had lived out that part of her life with her.

Some who could remind Fate that this was not her past…That she was Fate T. Harlaown and not Fate Testa—

“Fate-chan!”

That voice…Fate looked up, and sure enough, she saw Nanoha descending from the sky towards her. Nanoha landed with perfect precision right next to Fate, smiling her uplifting smile that never failed to raise Fate’s spirits.

“Nanoha, how did you—”

“Chrono-kun asked me to come, so I came.” Nanoha glanced at Linith, then at Karel, who was picked up by the two officers who had come with Nanoha. “How—”

“I’m sorry, Nanoha,” Fate interrupted her, hanging her head and staring at the ground. “I shouldn’t have gotten so involved with her, or else I would have noticed Linith moving, and then Karel wouldn’t have gotten hurt and Vivio wouldn’t have vanished. I’m so sorry...”

“I heard,” Nanoha said, but rather than sounding disappointed Fate heard worry in her friend’s voice. “But I trust you, Fate-chan, remember? I know that you’ll find a way to get Vivio home safely.”

“Then why are you here?” Fate asked, confused.

Nanoha smiled softly, switching Raising Heart to her other hand so that she could clasp fingers with Fate. “Chrono-kun called me for you. If you need someone to talk to, someone to give you a hug, someone to watch your back in a fight—I’m here for you, Fate-chan.”

And just like that, Fate felt the miserable anxiety drain away. Nanoha reminded her of what she had gained over the years, and even if what Fate had now wasn’t what she had hoped for when she had been a lonely child, she loved it. Fate T. Harlaown had moved past regrets, and she felt almost sheepish for having forgotten that.

All she did in return was squeeze Nanoha’s hand and say, “Thank you.”

Nanoha’s smile widened and she squeezed back, and Fate knew that her oldest friend understood.

**O**

A king’s bedroom was nearly as large as the Claudia’s bridge.

The walls stretched upwards twice as high as a normal room, and the pillars extending from the walls provided surfaces for ancient tapestries to hang from. The metallic hues made the room feel cold although the floor itself radiated warmth. A massive bed had been shoved into the corner, untouched, while the rest of the furniture clustered at the center of the room.

Vivio knew that she was gaping like a beached fish as she stared at the massive tank laid on its side, the glass vibrating slightly with a low hum and emitting a dim light.

The young girl curled up in a foetal position wasn’t another Fate.

This was Alicia.

All the blood drained from Vivio’s face when she saw the woman sitting beside the tank, caressing the glass as if the woman imagined that she could actually touch the girl inside. A woman with long grey hair and sunken purple eyes—Vivio had seen pictures of her while she had been smiling and happy.

She was smiling now.

Precia Testarossa…

To Nanoha-mama, she had been an enemy. To Fate-mama…she had been “Mother”. So what exactly did that make her to Vivio? It had been easy to listen to Fate-mama’s forgiving memories when Precia had just been a name instead of a reality.

Vivio’s first thought was, Vivio Takamachi—your mamas beat Precia once, so you can’t do any less. And her second was, This is my grandmother!

Precia stirred, pulling her eyes away from her daughter with effort to look at the open door.

“Takamachi…” Precia repeated, musing over the name. Vivio couldn’t read her expression, the nervous tension making her twitchy.

“She’s one of the TSAB officers who tried to stop me on Ruwella,” Fate supplied.

“Hm.” Precia looked at Vivio. One of her hands paused in its slow stroking of the glass and adjusted a small blanket that was draped on her lap. She didn’t look very well, and Vivio wondered why. Maybe she could use that to her advantage—she still had Sacred Heart, and if she could outmanoeuvre Fate she might manage to get away far enough to hide. But there was no point in running if she couldn’t find a way to teleport back, or if Uncle Chrono hadn’t sent anyone after her yet. Besides, even as Vivio looked back at Precia and saw how the woman coughed wetly into one hand, she couldn’t forget the sight of her Fate-mama collapsed in a hole punched into the pavement from a cross-dimensional attack.

“That’s my Nanoha-mama,” Vivio declared, blushing at the hint of self-deprecation that had slipped into her proud retort.

“I thought that you said Enforcer Fate was your mother,” Fate said from beside Vivio.

“Fate?” A slow, crooked smile spread across Precia’s lips.

Vivio swallowed, fighting to keep her knees from shaking. “They’re both my mothers.” Should she be telling her captors such things? TSAB protocol said that she should only tell them her name and her rank, and nothing else. However…this was her grandmother, in a way. And also her…whatever this Fate’s relation to her was. This was her…her family.

“You’re Fate’s daughter?”

Next to her, Vivio saw Fate flinch slightly—a twinge of hurt in her face at hearing her name used that way?

Vivio nodded.

Precia regarded her closely, then smiled, her face softening. “Then you’re my granddaughter, aren’t you?” She pointed at the chair across from her, placed at the foot of Alicia’s glass tube. “Have a seat.”

“…Thank you, ma’am.” Nervously, Vivio stepped forward and perched on the edge of the chair, locking her hands on her lap around Kris to hide her unease, and so that she could quickly transform if needed.

Fate didn’t sit. “Oka-san, I have to go save Linith. The TSAB captured her before we could escape together.”

“Sit by Alicia for a while, Fate.” Precia leaned back on the couch, letting the cushions support her weight. She held up a hand, cutting off Fate’s confused protest. “Don’t worry, Fate—Linith can take care of herself.”

Vivio saw Fate acquiesce and sit on the floor next to the floating Alicia, whispering something to her sister. But she had been watching Precia the whole time, and Vivio felt a cold shock at the odd languid expression on Precia’s face as the old woman said satisfactorily, “We don’t have to worry about Linith.”

**O**

Nanoha would have liked to hug her Fate-chan, but the sound of a hoarse gasp behind her interrupted the moment. She had only seen Fate’s face go that pale once before, and would have never wanted to see it again.

"What's wrong?" Fate cried, rushing over and waving a hand to dissipate the binds around Linith, who had shifted from her cat form into that of a young woman, sprawled out on the pavement. Nanoha bounded over too, and was about to reach out for Linith but the cat-eared familiar groaned, managing to sit up weakly.

Linith glanced down, a small sad smile on her lips as her bangs hid her eyes. "Ah, so that's it then." She put a trembling hand on her chest, her fingers already ghostly translucent. "The contract is done."

“What?” said Nanoha.

"You're disappearing?" Fate exclaimed, her face anguished. She reached out a hand but stopped just before her fingers touched Linith's shoulder.

"It's done," Linith said quietly, her breaths coming slower and slower. Nanoha made a small distressed sound in her throat, and caught Linith's hand as it fluttered weakly at them. The dying familiar's touch was cold and tingling, like touching pure magic as her physical body turned back into the magic that had given her a second life.

Linith slumped, a weary sigh escaping her cracked lips. "So we have found it..."

"What have you found?" Fate asked, a mixture of frustration and compassion on her face.

"The means," Linith whispered, "to bring the young lady back. Not just the right Jewel...but...the means..."

"What do you mean?" Fate cried, but it was too late.

Nanoha felt all sensation between her cupped hands vanish, her arms falling uselessly to her sides as Linith disappeared, vanishing into nothing as if she had never been there at all. And she heard Fate groan, the sound an agonized whimper as the blonde collapsed on her knees, her head in her hands. Nanoha knelt and hugged her tightly, pressing Fate's bowed head to her chest.

"Not again," she heard Fate moan, before starting to cry.

"Fate-chan—"

“We have to find them." Fate pulled herself up, pale and shaking. "You heard what Linith said...Mother found the means. Linith didn't disappear when I handed my clone the Jewel."

Oh…it probably wasn’t a good idea to bait Precia. But nothing happened, or at least Precia acted like nothing had happened.

“Aren’t you curious about your lost family?”

“Kind of,” Vivio conceded honestly. She looped her ankles together, swinging her legs slightly. “Why were you so cruel to my mom? Fate-mama?”

Precia looked disapproving of the question, her lined brow furrowing, but she didn’t appear too angry. “Cruel? You must be mistaken.”

“Um…I doubt it.”

“I wanted to make her strong.” Precia sighed, and the sense of theatrics made Vivio more doubtful of Precia’s answers. “It’s a pity that she had been swayed by weaker associations. Besides, she was the second child—you don’t want to make the same mistakes with your children twice, after all.”

“Yes, you want to learn from your mistakes.” Her purple eyes drifted over to the clone Fate, who was still murmuring to Alicia. “I didn’t let my new daughter make the same foolish mistakes Linith allowed.”

“So Linith—this new Linith—she’s your familiar, and not Fate-chan’s?”

“I said it already, didn’t I?” Annoyed, Precia coughed lightly. “I didn’t make the same mistakes this time.”

Arf had been the best thing for her Fate-mama, Vivio knew! Anyone could tell, especially when they brought it up to Arf herself, and just seeing Arf’s sad and self-guilt over things she didn’t have the power to do in the past told the story.

“Arf loved Fate-mama, when you didn’t,” accused Vivio. It was uncomfortable, speaking this way to an adult, to her grandmother, but Nanoha-mama had always told her to be honest about her feelings.

“That’s not the case now.”

Vivio squinted, holding Kris closer to herself. Precia didn’t look like she was lying…and clearly, the clone Fate really loved Precia like a mother, so that means that it’s not a lie, right? “Do you love Fate-chan? But you’re using her like you used Fate-mama, to find the Jewel Seeds for you.”

“She’s doing it of her own free will,” replied Precia, glancing sideways to smile in that motherly pride way at the back of Fate’s head. “My Fate wants to save her older sister.” Precia turned to look at Vivio, her gaze intense and burning with passion. “Don’t you want to save your aunt? To save Alicia too…we’re all family, after all.”

Vivio hesitated. She looked over at the encased Alicia. The curled up girl looked exactly like her Fate-mama…of course, they had to be, since her mama was a clone of Alicia…and so was this Fate, but with Fate-mama’s memories. Three people with the same face, but they weren’t the same. But still, they were all the same family…

“But we can’t,” Vivio said finally. “Magic can’t bring back the dead. Everyone knows that.” It was one of the first lessons any mage got—although of course, in elementary school they were taught that fact through fables and little stories and such. It was only through her reading in the Infinity Library that Vivio got to see what kind of trouble had been caused in the past by mages who tried to overcome that impossible barrier.

Precia Testarossa had been widely cited, in fact.

“Our current magic,” Precia countered, smiling widely. She waved one hand about the air, the jewel at her wrist flashing. “But look where we are! Al-Hazard, the ultimate pinnacle of magic…where the ancients performed miracles that were nothing but ordinary feats to them. You saw the city—even ruined, look at what they had achieved!” She chuckled, the sound hoarse from her damaged throat. “Twenty years ago, I had decided to find the path here because I knew then, just as I know now, that with the right kind of magic, we can bring back the dead.”

“You can’t!” Vivio protested, perching on the edge of her seat. It felt better to argue when her feet were planted on the floor, since they had been dangling off the edge of the chair before. “You even mentioned it yourself in your earlier dissertations about familiars, Precia-san—that even familiar magic didn’t truly bring back the dead, but captures a soul right before true death to implant into a new body. Resurrecting the dead is impossible, and even if it was…” Vivio hesitated, losing her wind once she had drifted from evidence into opinion. “…dying is just another part of life. We have to learn to let them go.”

Precia tilted her head, the motion reminding Vivio of an eagle sizing up its prey. “And who taught you that lesson? Your mother?” The mocking tone in her voice made Vivio scowl. Then something serious and very sane entered Precia’s eyes as she said, “If you were dead, do you really believe that your mother wouldn’t do anything to save you?”

…If Precia hadn’t asked her in that way, Vivio could have easily deflected it. But she was aware that Fate had given up pretending not to eavesdrop, and was watching her too, waiting for an answer.

They were a lot alike, that Fate and Vivio…both of them weren’t truly their mothers’ daughters, but yet at the same time, that family bond was there. Undeniably there.

Would her mamas do anything to save Vivio’s life?

“…I don’t know,” Vivio admitted. Kris twitched under the pressure of her tight grip around his middle. “But if it was going to hurt someone, then I know that they wouldn’t!”

“Who am I hurting?” Precia asked mildly, smiling again. “Think about it, my granddaughter—all I need is the right Jewel Seed for Alicia. Rather than harming someone, I am restoring a life that had been stolen!”

Vivio bit her lip, trembling.

Precia did have a point…nowhere in the books Vivio read mentioned why it was bad to try and bring back the dead. All the literature seemed to agree that it was an impossibility, and most attempts had been a mixture of superstitious rituals mixed with sacrifices. But if Precia was right…if Al-Hazard technology could really revive Alicia without harming anyone…then was that the right thing to do?

It took every ounce of Nanoha’s persuasive skills to get Fate to agree to retire for the night to her quarters. Neither she nor Chrono wanted to make it an order, since all that would do is load more anxiety and conflicting feelings on Fate, so Nanoha had slowly and persuasively coaxed Fate into getting some rest to be ready for a rescue mission.

She was glad that Chrono had Amy call her.

“Fate-chan, I’m kind of tired…join me?” Nanoha held up the covers to Fate’s bunk, having already curled up under the blankets and was propping herself up on one arm. The bed hadn’t quite been made with two people in mind, but they’d manage somehow.

Fate hesitated, pausing in her pacing. She had changed into—more like Nanoha had changed her into—casual clothes, but held herself rigid enough to still be in uniform. Apprehension flickered in her red eyes, and Nanoha fought to keep herself from blushing when she realized why Fate was hesitating; blushing would probably accidentally confirm Fate’s thoughts! Nanoha tried to inject the warmest, most comforting and platonic tones into her voice as she elaborated, “I’m worried about you, Fate-chan—I think you could use some sleep. Please?”

Fate bit her lip, then sighed and walked over, letting Nanoha cuddle her close and stroke her hair. Without Nanoha’s asking, Raising Heart dimmed the lights down before flying to rest beside Bardiche on the bedside shelf.

They lay there in the dim room, silent.

“…Fate-chan? Do you want to talk about it?”

A sigh. “About what part?”

“Any part you want.”

“…”

“…”

“I know that I shouldn’t think this way…but I keep asking myself: What did I do wrong?” A wet tear dripped onto Nanoha’s neck as Fate sniffed, laying her cheek on Nanoha’s shoulder. “Why did Mother love Alicia and that clone, but not me?”

Nanoha wordlessly began rubbing Fate’s back as the blonde trembled.

“Why didn’t Mother try to find me, if she had realized that it was alright to love someone other than Alicia-nee-san? Instead, she…she made herself another daughter to love. Nanoha, I would have forgiven Mother. I already have.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Why did she call her Fate? I’ve been thinking and thinking about that, and I just don’t know. Mother…she had said that she hated me. She didn’t want to call me after Alicia, who she loved. But then why did she name her after me?”

“Maybe…” Nanoha paused, not sure if she should be speculating or not. “Maybe Precia wanted to be reminded of you.” She left it at that—knowing her own feelings towards Precia, Nanoha would probably extrapolate a more negative interpretation. That wasn’t what Fate needed at the moment.

“Nanoha,” whispered Fate.

“Yes?” she answered just as softly.

“If…if I had been her…if I had known that Mother had wanted the Jewel Seeds to try and save Alicia…”

“…For my sister? If I had known, Nanoha…” Fate pushed herself up slightly so that they were looking at each other, her eyes a deep black-red in the darkness. “I would have done anything in my power to get those Jewel Seeds. Even if it meant…fighting anyone who tried to stop me. I probably would have hurt you, Nanoha. And I wouldn’t have cared.”

“You would have cared,” Nanoha said, brushing some blonde locks behind Fate’s ear. “Even if you had known about Alicia, you’re a good person, Fate-chan.”

“I don’t know,” Fate said in a small voice, her tone shaky. “If I had failed Mother, failed Alicia-nee-san…right and wrong wouldn’t have…mattered…”

“I believe in you.” Nanoha reached out in the dark and clasped Fate’s hand. “I believe in you, Fate.”

“Nanoha…if I was her…if I had grown up the way she lived, then I might not have taken your hand after all.” Fate bit her lip, shame etched into her face like a brand. “I might not have let myself try to see your side of things, if I’d had something so important to fight for.”

Nanoha repressed a shiver.

It was exactly that truth that had Fate dread what Vivio would be facing.

She didn’t need Fate to finish her confession. The haunted guilt in Fate’s eyes told it all.

If I had grown up with Mother loving me…

For my family…

…I would do anything they needed of me.

**O**

Vivio didn’t know how to answer.

So she dodged the question by asking one of her own. “Do you really think that it’s best for Alicia to bring her back? What if…you’re the one who needs her more?”

Precia drew herself back, affronted. “This has never been about me,” she practically hissed, her body twitching in agitation. “Alicia didn’t deserve to suffer for my mistakes! She was just a girl…I would do anything to have traded my life for hers…” Sadness flooded into Precia’s voice, and Vivio knew for certain that it was not an act. “I lived my years, made my choices…but Alicia had her choices taken from her. I will get them back for her.”

It shouldn’t be right…what Precia was doing just couldn’t be the right thing to do. It was against the law. But…even though her Nanoha-mama had always told Vivio to be a good, responsible citizen, undoubtedly Nanoha had taught her that doing the right thing was more important than worrying about whether it was against the rules or not. All of Vivio’s aunts and uncles seemed to live by the same philosophy—Nanoha-mama had shown her way to all of them before.

Surely, giving a young girl another chance at life had to be the right thing to do?

Didn’t Nanoha-mama give Fate-mama that same chance, fourteen years ago?

Vivio saw Precia smile, and she realized that her wavering conviction was probably written all over her face. Quickly she schooled her expression, but too late.

“Now that Fate has gotten us the Jewel Seed we need,” Precia said, waving a hand at the clone sitting on the floor, “All we need to do is find the correct method to infuse the Jewel into Alicia’s body.” A small coughing fit interrupted Precia, making Fate spring to her feet and quickly pour a glass of water for her mother. Precia gave her a small smile and drank, letting her breathing ease.

Vivio quickly sat back down—she had jumped up too when Precia had started coughing.

“Thank you, dear,” Precia patted Fate’s head, and the blonde smiled, her whole face lighting up. However, concern still shone in Fate’s eyes as she took the glass back from Precia’s trembling hand.

“This is absolutely critical—my poor Alicia…” Precia fixed her eyes on Alicia’s tank, the sickly pale light emitting from the glass casting a greenish glow across Precia’s face. “It’s been too long…We must make it work. I won’t get another chance.”

“From…” Vivio paused, trying to wet her dry mouth. “From what I’ve read about the Jewel Seeds, they fulfill the wishes of a living animal or person. I don’t think it would quite work for Alicia, since she’s…well…dead.”

“Yes,” Precia agreed bitterly. “But the theory should still be sound…the release of power from an invoked Lost Logia should be more than enough to provide the kind of magic needed to provide a new life. But I don’t think that there’s been a case of a Jewel Seed successfully merging with a human.”

Vivio frowned, working the problem over in her head. “I’ve never heard of any either, but it’s happened with Relics.”

“Relics?”

“Yeah. They’re Lost Logia too, but they’re compatible with people.” Vivio shivered, looking down. The memories were still fresh, even if most of the terror had been in her past. “Jail Scaglietti had told Lutecia-chan that the right Relic could revive Megane-san, who had been in a coma. Well, he might have been lying to her though…”

“But I assume that it hadn’t actually been done before?” Precia asked, sighing in disappointment.

“Well, actually, it has,” Vivio told her. “During the JS Incident, Jail…” She gripped Kris tighter and took a breath. “Jail had put one inside me, so that I could power the Saint’s Cradle for him. It…hurt a lot. But he did do it, and I think he did it to Lutecia-chan too.”

Precia went still. “You had a Lost Logia placed inside of you…successfully?”

A chill went down Vivio’s spine. “Um…yes,” she said tentatively.

But Precia wasn’t looking at her any longer, having rose from the couch and was pacing in a limping, twitchy manner. Fate was clearly worried, but she didn’t seem to dare break her mother’s concentration on something.

“I see, I see…the girl has made it all so clear now…perhaps my method had been wrong…Relic or Jewel Seed, they are both Lost Logia, so maybe it isn’t the source but the way…” Precia’s hands quivered as she spoke to herself, clutching at her chest as if trying to contain her excitement or another coughing fit. “That may be why my previous attempts have all failed…not a matter of the human subjects, or the Jewel serial number, but my procedure was faulty…but how to correct it? A prototype, yes…” Precia stopped, her gray hair hanging in long limp strands before her face. Then she tilted her head, her purple eyes peering brightly through her hair straight at Vivio. “Yes…I should examine a specimen where the procedure was successful…”

Bam! Vivio tripped backwards over her chair, sprawling over the arm and rolling to her feet, putting space between herself and the eagerly watching Precia. “W…What?” she stammered nervously. “Precia-san…”

“No, I think I’ll pass, sorry,” Vivio gulped. She stepped back involuntarily, and only realized that her retreating towards the door would probably set Precia off after the fully crazed fury exploded in Precia’s gaze.

“How dare you defy your grandmother!” Precia screamed, her staff materializing in her right hand. “Come back here at once!”

Fate had already been in her Barrier Jacket, so in the time that it took Vivio’s Barrier Jacket to fully form Fate had already took to the air, brandishing Bardiche.
“Arc Saber.”

Vivio tucked and rolled, letting the yellow blade arc over her and strike the wall. She charged straight for Fate, leaping into the air herself. Dodging two sets of lightning binds, Vivio attacked with a flurry of punches, hitting Fate’s auto-shield with some hits and being parried by Bardiche’s staff with others.

“Photon Lancer.”

Vivio closed in again, getting behind the forming energy spheres and so making Fate’s attack useless. Unlike her Fate-mama’s upgraded Plasma Lancer, Vivio knew that the shots from Photon Lancer only travelled in one direction, so she got in close and struck Fate with her armoured fists.

“Accel Smash!”

Fate yelped when Vivio slugged her in the stomach, barely twisting out of Vivio’s next attack and diving towards the floor. The room wasn’t large enough for Fate to loop her, so Vivio followed, cutting Fate off and launching a kick that nearly tore Bardiche out of her opponent’s hands.

Fate was going to rush her, get in close to use her scythe. With Alicia’s tank and Precia so close, there was no way Fate would risk using a shooting spell. Vivio could use that to her advantage.

Just as Vivio expected, Fate blitzed towards Vivio, Bardiche’s scythe form carving upwards towards her face. Vivio made a sharp crescent turn and thrust out one gauntleted hand.

A close range shot should neutralize her!

“DIVINE BUSTER!”

Fate immediately dodged, but the shot wouldn’t have hit her anyway.

Fate’s Sonic Move had moved her faster than Vivio had estimated. Her Divine Buster shot behind Fate’s fluttering cape, shredding the edge into black and red strips.

But the beam kept going.

Even this short range version had more than enough space in the small room to keep going at full power.

“No!” Precia and Vivio screamed.

The rainbow beam struck Alicia’s tank—and promptly exploded in a cloud of glass and fluid and smoke.

Spoiler for Author's Note:

Ooooooh, someone's in trouble!

About the Linith situation...I'll go back and smooth out the previous chapters to make sure I'm clear that this is a big, non-housecat sized version of Linith for my final draft ^^.

No flames for the unintentional NanoFate scene please! It just...happened , but it fit so I left it in. Besides, it's not like I made any conclusive statement about the exact nature of their relationship anyway, right?

Chapter 4 may take me a bit of time; it depends on if I get talked out of certain nefarious plans I might have for editing the last chapter, hehehe ....(j/k, but I'm not very happy with it, so I'll need to do intensive editing and I won't have much time for it this week. I'll do my best!)

Spoiler for Comment:

There was a NanoFate scene? *too distracted by the actual plot*

Impressive chapter. Now if you would excuse me, I'm going to cry at the corner for what happened to Linith 2.0...

Fate jerked involuntarily to the sound of her name, but hearing Linith’s equally frantic cry jolted her out of her own shock.

As a fighting mage, Fate had been drilled in knowing exactly how much strength to use when throwing any object in any direction, and still know precisely where it lands. She dove and rolled across the pavement, snatching up Bardiche mid-roll and burst into the air, transformed.

Ten arrow-bolts materialized behind Fate, shooting towards Linith and striking with an explosion of golden sparks and lightning, tearing a screech from the mountain cat’s throat.

Linith collapsed, her whiskers singed and her head drooping to the ground.

“Fate?” Chrono cried.

She had already crossed over to Karel’s side, checking the limp boy’s pulse. “He’s alright. A few gouges on his neck, but his spine feels solid.” Somehow, Fate kept her voice from trembling. “I’ve captured Linith, but Vivio and my clone both disappeared into the portal.” She took a breath to steady her shaking. “Admiral, I request a relief force to come and pick up the prisoner and Officer Cadet Harlaown, and for permission to pursue the second target.”

“We’re sending in a relief force,” Chrono answered, “but you cannot pursue.” Quickly, because he knew that she would respectfully tell him to stuff it and go after her daughter anyway, Chrono elaborated. “You need a Jewel Seed to pass through, remember?”

“The TSAB vault has—”

“More than that,” interrupted Chrono. “The portal’s backlash as it closed took us by surprise—it fried some of the Claudia’s systems. Zetec did manage to find the quadrant of space the portal led to before the systems crashed, so we’ll head there now. Keep a close eye on the prisoner—the clone may make contact, and we can use that to track her.”

Unlikely, Fate despaired—Precia had a gift with familiars, but her mother had never seen them as anything but a tool. Tools who had no value other than what they were made to achieve for their master.

“Fate.” Chrono’s tone was low, as soft as Fate had ever heard from him. “We’ll find Vivio, I promise.”

It was probably an empty promise, Fate knew. How many of them had she herself made in the past to weeping parents?

But she believed him.

She had to.

**O**

Vivio was in a Heaven in Hell.

Tall cathedrals and spires rose from the crumbled streets, the buildings glinting with glass and jewels and marble, their tops jabbing into a red-clouded sky. The ruins of huge golems and other unidentifiable objects littered the street, their exteriors crusted over with rust and metal dust. If this was Al-Hazard, then Vivio found herself suitably awed and apprehensively reverent.

Either apocalypse had struck this amazing city, or the horrors the gilded surfaces had hid finally broke through to the surface. Whatever the cause, Al-Hazard was ruined, ghostly with the eerie silence of the battlefield grave.

Uncle Yuuno would be so jealous—

Fate-mama! And the cl—

Vivio froze when she felt the warm sizzling curve of a scythe touch her throat.

“Don’t move,” a quiet voice ordered from behind her.

“Please…” Vivio said, trying to keep her throat from moving as much as possible. After their trick, she didn’t want to test this Fate’s temper. “Please…can’t we talk?”

“I’ll talk,” Fate said coldly, although her voice wasn’t quite as stoic as she was pretending to be. “Put your hands slowly behind your back and give me the Jewel.”

Vivio swallowed, twitching as the motion made Bardiche’s blade nip into her skin. Even if she could manage to compute the teleport coordinates by herself and actually open a dimensional portal, she’d need a Jewel Seed to make it through without being swallowed into the abyss of dimensional space.

Fate-mama would never kill anyone.

But…

The blade jabbed into Vivio’s neck, a sharp line of pain stinging under her chin.

“Now.”

…this wasn’t Fate-mama.

Slowly, Vivio raised her hands, then put them behind her back. She could guess at where the doppelganger was standing and try a surprise attack, but if Vivio was a fraction off or too slow, she may end up headless. Hadn’t they been taught never to give in to criminals? But they’d also been instructed to do anything they can to stay alive…

Vivio opened her gauntlet, letting the Jewel Seed lie on her palm.

Lightning quick, it was snatched out of her hand.

“Now banish your Barrier Jacket, and throw your device to the side.”

“I can banish my Jacket, but I need my device on me,” Vivio lied, glad that Fate was behind her. No matter how hard Aunt Hayate tried to teach her, Vivio’s face always gave away when she was lying, although she had mastered her aunt’s sincere, seemingly guileless tone. “It helps me keep a health condition in check.”

Vivio winced sheepishly. She should have expected that question. “Ah…Olivie Segbrecht.”

Fate frowned, her mind clearly working over the name. Like usual, Vivio could tell the moment she had worked out who that was, as Fate’s eyes widened.

“The Sankt Kaiser?”

“Yes,” sighed Vivio, kicking a small chunk of rock with a shoe. The rock clattered and struck a heap of drones, causing something to glow eerily. Or it could have just been her imagination. It was probably her overactive imagination reminding her of all the books she’d read about Lost Logias, and the fact that she was now stuck in the real-life version of…

…Actually, the irony there was that the usual saying ended with “of Al-Hazard”.

Something closed in Fate’s expression, and the lightning mage gave Vivio a little impatient prod in the back with Bardiche as if to move them along faster down the street as well as move through the current conversation to its end. “It doesn’t matter—Enforcer Fate’s memories were Alicia-nee-san’s too.”

“…Alright.” Vivio managed to stop herself from adding a childish If you say so. She wasn’t sure how it would matter, if this Fate had her Fate-mama’s memories or Alicia’s, but Vivio had the feeling that it did matter somehow.

The area darkened suddenly, and Vivio looked up as the blooded sky boiled over with deep purple clouds, casting long shadows on them.

The street was rising up, and there were fewer crumbling buildings around them as they walked on. At the top of this small hill towers staked out the corners of a glittering palace, the tall arches and jagged walls making Vivio feel very small and vulnerable as she stared at it from within its shadow.

What kind of kings had ruled this land before Al-Hazard fell? The entire city looked like a collection of relics from a creative, glorious race, but then why had this utopian-like city fallen into such ruins? This eerie crystalline and stone palace gave Vivio the shivers.

She couldn’t help thinking about the wild speculations that Al-Hazard had been a land of gods.

What powers did Precia Testarossa find here? What could Precia do with those powers?

“From earlier,” Fate clarified as they approached the great crystal gates of the palace. “I’m not ashamed of being a clone. I already knew—or thought—that I was Alicia-nee-san’s clone.”

“Then why the weird reaction?”

Fate hesitated for an instant, having second thoughts about confiding to a stranger and an enemy, but she had brought the topic up again because she clearly had wanted someone to confess to. “I thought that I had been born as Alicia-nee-san’s sister…her twin. But now, I’m just…I’m just that other Fate’s clone, I have part of her memories…” She trailed off as the tall gates opened, the hinges complaining their use in a series of high-pitched screeching.

The hall loomed dozens of meters above their heads, the large space adding to the chill that hung heavily in the air. Vivio hugged her arms to her chest as goosebumps rose on her skin. A soft hand patted her cheek as Kris snuggled closer to her neck.

Their steps echoed in the emptiness, the sounds travelling down the corridor and disappearing in the blackness hundreds of feet away. Through an open door to Vivio’s right she caught sight of a massive throne hall, gleaming with broken glass and crystal strewn on the gold-tiled floor before they moved on past.

Bardiche’s head nudged Vivio’s shoulder, stopping her next to a set of carved doors. The slight hominess of the patterns made Vivio guess that this must be a bedroom of some kind, maybe even the chambers of the ruler.

Fate put one hand on the doors where they met in a nearly seamless line. Her brow was furrowed slightly, and her lip curled slightly where she was biting it.

“It just feels like…just a little…” Fate struggled to find a way to voice her thoughts, a mixture of dejection, sadness and what Vivio thought was fear in her face. Vivio couldn’t move her gaze away, transfixed on the vulnerability. Quietly, almost guiltily, Fate said, “…like I’m just a replacement for her.”

The bedroom doors rumbled, swinging open slowly and releasing a cold draft that made Vivio shiver, and shiver again when she looked into the room.

**O**

It only took three minutes and twenty seconds for the relief force to arrive. Fate knew this because she had been checking her time display every ten seconds between pacing along the alley, checking Karel’s vitals and exchanging looks with Linith, who was still bound with lightning rings. The mountain cat familiar had regained consciousness minutes earlier and was currently quiet, curled up on her bound paws as much as she could in a predator’s crouch.

Despite having the same name and the same animal form, Fate could immediately tell that this was not her Linith. This Linith had a youthful strength while Fate’s Linith had had a mature intelligence.

A different guardian for a different purpose.

“I knew a Linith too,” Fate said quietly to her. Linith began to growl, but Fate continued. “She took care of me, and taught me magic.”

The rumbling growl in Linith’s throat lessened slightly.

“Please,” Fate appealed. “Will you help us help her? If the solution does not harm anyone, I promise that I will do anything in my power to help.” She knelt down, keeping a respectful distance away from Linith’s claws. “In my childhood, I had to search for the Jewel Seeds for Precia as well, and Mother hadn’t been…easy…on me. Will you help?”

Linith eyed her with narrowed green eyes, her ears flat against her skull. “You,” she said finally, drawing her lips upwards to expose white fangs, “are not my Fate.”

If only Fate had brought Arf with her—maybe Arf could have talked this Linith into acting for the good of her master. But more than that…Fate wanted the old familiarity, to have someone who understood and had lived out that part of her life with her.

Some who could remind Fate that this was not her past…That she was Fate T. Harlaown and not Fate Testa—

“Fate-chan!”

That voice…Fate looked up, and sure enough, she saw Nanoha descending from the sky towards her. Nanoha landed with perfect precision right next to Fate, smiling her uplifting smile that never failed to raise Fate’s spirits.

“Nanoha, how did you—”

“Chrono-kun asked me to come, so I came.” Nanoha glanced at Linith, then at Karel, who was picked up by the two officers who had come with Nanoha. “How—”

“I’m sorry, Nanoha,” Fate interrupted her, hanging her head and staring at the ground. “I shouldn’t have gotten so involved with her, or else I would have noticed Linith moving, and then Karel wouldn’t have gotten hurt and Vivio wouldn’t have vanished. I’m so sorry...”

“I heard,” Nanoha said, but rather than sounding disappointed Fate heard worry in her friend’s voice. “But I trust you, Fate-chan, remember? I know that you’ll find a way to get Vivio home safely.”

“Then why are you here?” Fate asked, confused.

Nanoha smiled softly, switching Raising Heart to her other hand so that she could clasp fingers with Fate. “Chrono-kun called me for you. If you need someone to talk to, someone to give you a hug, someone to watch your back in a fight—I’m here for you, Fate-chan.”

And just like that, Fate felt the miserable anxiety drain away. Nanoha reminded her of what she had gained over the years, and even if what Fate had now wasn’t what she had hoped for when she had been a lonely child, she loved it. Fate T. Harlaown had moved past regrets, and she felt almost sheepish for having forgotten that.

All she did in return was squeeze Nanoha’s hand and say, “Thank you.”

Nanoha’s smile widened and she squeezed back, and Fate knew that her oldest friend understood.

**O**

A king’s bedroom was nearly as large as the Claudia’s bridge.

The walls stretched upwards twice as high as a normal room, and the pillars extending from the walls provided surfaces for ancient tapestries to hang from. The metallic hues made the room feel cold although the floor itself radiated warmth. A massive bed had been shoved into the corner, untouched, while the rest of the furniture clustered at the center of the room.

Vivio knew that she was gaping like a beached fish as she stared at the massive tank laid on its side, the glass vibrating slightly with a low hum and emitting a dim light.

The young girl curled up in a foetal position wasn’t another Fate.

This was Alicia.

All the blood drained from Vivio’s face when she saw the woman sitting beside the tank, caressing the glass as if the woman imagined that she could actually touch the girl inside. A woman with long grey hair and sunken purple eyes—Vivio had seen pictures of her while she had been smiling and happy.

She was smiling now.

Precia Testarossa…

To Nanoha-mama, she had been an enemy. To Fate-mama…she had been “Mother”. So what exactly did that make her to Vivio? It had been easy to listen to Fate-mama’s forgiving memories when Precia had just been a name instead of a reality.

Vivio’s first thought was, Vivio Takamachi—your mamas beat Precia once, so you can’t do any less. And her second was, This is my grandmother!

Precia stirred, pulling her eyes away from her daughter with effort to look at the open door.

“Takamachi…” Precia repeated, musing over the name. Vivio couldn’t read her expression, the nervous tension making her twitchy.

“She’s one of the TSAB officers who tried to stop me on Ruwella,” Fate supplied.

“Hm.” Precia looked at Vivio. One of her hands paused in its slow stroking of the glass and adjusted a small blanket that was draped on her lap. She didn’t look very well, and Vivio wondered why. Maybe she could use that to her advantage—she still had Sacred Heart, and if she could outmanoeuvre Fate she might manage to get away far enough to hide. But there was no point in running if she couldn’t find a way to teleport back, or if Uncle Chrono hadn’t sent anyone after her yet. Besides, even as Vivio looked back at Precia and saw how the woman coughed wetly into one hand, she couldn’t forget the sight of her Fate-mama collapsed in a hole punched into the pavement from a cross-dimensional attack.

“That’s my Nanoha-mama,” Vivio declared, blushing at the hint of self-deprecation that had slipped into her proud retort.

“I thought that you said Enforcer Fate was your mother,” Fate said from beside Vivio.

“Fate?” A slow, crooked smile spread across Precia’s lips.

Vivio swallowed, fighting to keep her knees from shaking. “They’re both my mothers.” Should she be telling her captors such things? TSAB protocol said that she should only tell them her name and her rank, and nothing else. However…this was her grandmother, in a way. And also her…whatever this Fate’s relation to her was. This was her…her family.

“You’re Fate’s daughter?”

Next to her, Vivio saw Fate flinch slightly—a twinge of hurt in her face at hearing her name used that way?

Vivio nodded.

Precia regarded her closely, then smiled, her face softening. “Then you’re my granddaughter, aren’t you?” She pointed at the chair across from her, placed at the foot of Alicia’s glass tube. “Have a seat.”

“…Thank you, ma’am.” Nervously, Vivio stepped forward and perched on the edge of the chair, locking her hands on her lap around Kris to hide her unease, and so that she could quickly transform if needed.

Fate didn’t sit. “Oka-san, I have to go save Linith. The TSAB captured her before we could escape together.”

“Sit by Alicia for a while, Fate.” Precia leaned back on the couch, letting the cushions support her weight. She held up a hand, cutting off Fate’s confused protest. “Don’t worry, Fate—Linith can take care of herself.”

Vivio saw Fate acquiesce and sit on the floor next to the floating Alicia, whispering something to her sister. But she had been watching Precia the whole time, and Vivio felt a cold shock at the odd languid expression on Precia’s face as the old woman said satisfactorily, “We don’t have to worry about Linith.”

**O**

Nanoha would have liked to hug her Fate-chan, but the sound of a hoarse gasp behind her interrupted the moment. She had only seen Fate’s face go that pale once before, and would have never wanted to see it again.

"What's wrong?" Fate cried, rushing over and waving a hand to dissipate the binds around Linith, who had shifted from her cat form into that of a young woman, sprawled out on the pavement. Nanoha bounded over too, and was about to reach out for Linith but the cat-eared familiar groaned, managing to sit up weakly.

Linith glanced down, a small sad smile on her lips as her bangs hid her eyes. "Ah, so that's it then." She put a trembling hand on her chest, her fingers already ghostly translucent. "The contract is done."

“What?” said Nanoha.

"You're disappearing?" Fate exclaimed, her face anguished. She reached out a hand but stopped just before her fingers touched Linith's shoulder.

"It's done," Linith said quietly, her breaths coming slower and slower. Nanoha made a small distressed sound in her throat, and caught Linith's hand as it fluttered weakly at them. The dying familiar's touch was cold and tingling, like touching pure magic as her physical body turned back into the magic that had given her a second life.

Linith slumped, a weary sigh escaping her cracked lips. "So we have found it..."

"What have you found?" Fate asked, a mixture of frustration and compassion on her face.

"The means," Linith whispered, "to bring the young lady back. Not just the right Jewel...but...the means..."

"What do you mean?" Fate cried, but it was too late.

Nanoha felt all sensation between her cupped hands vanish, her arms falling uselessly to her sides as Linith disappeared, vanishing into nothing as if she had never been there at all. And she heard Fate groan, the sound an agonized whimper as the blonde collapsed on her knees, her head in her hands. Nanoha knelt and hugged her tightly, pressing Fate's bowed head to her chest.

"Not again," she heard Fate moan, before starting to cry.

"Fate-chan—"

“We have to find them." Fate pulled herself up, pale and shaking. "You heard what Linith said...Mother found the means. Linith didn't disappear when I handed my clone the Jewel."

Oh…it probably wasn’t a good idea to bait Precia. But nothing happened, or at least Precia acted like nothing had happened.

“Aren’t you curious about your lost family?”

“Kind of,” Vivio conceded honestly. She looped her ankles together, swinging her legs slightly. “Why were you so cruel to my mom? Fate-mama?”

Precia looked disapproving of the question, her lined brow furrowing, but she didn’t appear too angry. “Cruel? You must be mistaken.”

“Um…I doubt it.”

“I wanted to make her strong.” Precia sighed, and the sense of theatrics made Vivio more doubtful of Precia’s answers. “It’s a pity that she had been swayed by weaker associations. Besides, she was the second child—you don’t want to make the same mistakes with your children twice, after all.”

“Yes, you want to learn from your mistakes.” Her purple eyes drifted over to the clone Fate, who was still murmuring to Alicia. “I didn’t let my new daughter make the same foolish mistakes Linith allowed.”

“So Linith—this new Linith—she’s your familiar, and not Fate-chan’s?”

“I said it already, didn’t I?” Annoyed, Precia coughed lightly. “I didn’t make the same mistakes this time.”

Arf had been the best thing for her Fate-mama, Vivio knew! Anyone could tell, especially when they brought it up to Arf herself, and just seeing Arf’s sad and self-guilt over things she didn’t have the power to do in the past told the story.

“Arf loved Fate-mama, when you didn’t,” accused Vivio. It was uncomfortable, speaking this way to an adult, to her grandmother, but Nanoha-mama had always told her to be honest about her feelings.

“That’s not the case now.”

Vivio squinted, holding Kris closer to herself. Precia didn’t look like she was lying…and clearly, the clone Fate really loved Precia like a mother, so that means that it’s not a lie, right? “Do you love Fate-chan? But you’re using her like you used Fate-mama, to find the Jewel Seeds for you.”

“She’s doing it of her own free will,” replied Precia, glancing sideways to smile in that motherly pride way at the back of Fate’s head. “My Fate wants to save her older sister.” Precia turned to look at Vivio, her gaze intense and burning with passion. “Don’t you want to save your aunt? To save Alicia too…we’re all family, after all.”

Vivio hesitated. She looked over at the encased Alicia. The curled up girl looked exactly like her Fate-mama…of course, they had to be, since her mama was a clone of Alicia…and so was this Fate, but with Fate-mama’s memories. Three people with the same face, but they weren’t the same. But still, they were all the same family…

“But we can’t,” Vivio said finally. “Magic can’t bring back the dead. Everyone knows that.” It was one of the first lessons any mage got—although of course, in elementary school they were taught that fact through fables and little stories and such. It was only through her reading in the Infinity Library that Vivio got to see what kind of trouble had been caused in the past by mages who tried to overcome that impossible barrier.

Precia Testarossa had been widely cited, in fact.

“Our current magic,” Precia countered, smiling widely. She waved one hand about the air, the jewel at her wrist flashing. “But look where we are! Al-Hazard, the ultimate pinnacle of magic…where the ancients performed miracles that were nothing but ordinary feats to them. You saw the city—even ruined, look at what they had achieved!” She chuckled, the sound hoarse from her damaged throat. “Twenty years ago, I had decided to find the path here because I knew then, just as I know now, that with the right kind of magic, we can bring back the dead.”

“You can’t!” Vivio protested, perching on the edge of her seat. It felt better to argue when her feet were planted on the floor, since they had been dangling off the edge of the chair before. “You even mentioned it yourself in your earlier dissertations about familiars, Precia-san—that even familiar magic didn’t truly bring back the dead, but captures a soul right before true death to implant into a new body. Resurrecting the dead is impossible, and even if it was…” Vivio hesitated, losing her wind once she had drifted from evidence into opinion. “…dying is just another part of life. We have to learn to let them go.”

Precia tilted her head, the motion reminding Vivio of an eagle sizing up its prey. “And who taught you that lesson? Your mother?” The mocking tone in her voice made Vivio scowl. Then something serious and very sane entered Precia’s eyes as she said, “If you were dead, do you really believe that your mother wouldn’t do anything to save you?”

…If Precia hadn’t asked her in that way, Vivio could have easily deflected it. But she was aware that Fate had given up pretending not to eavesdrop, and was watching her too, waiting for an answer.

They were a lot alike, that Fate and Vivio…both of them weren’t truly their mothers’ daughters, but yet at the same time, that family bond was there. Undeniably there.

Would her mamas do anything to save Vivio’s life?

“…I don’t know,” Vivio admitted. Kris twitched under the pressure of her tight grip around his middle. “But if it was going to hurt someone, then I know that they wouldn’t!”

“Who am I hurting?” Precia asked mildly, smiling again. “Think about it, my granddaughter—all I need is the right Jewel Seed for Alicia. Rather than harming someone, I am restoring a life that had been stolen!”

Vivio bit her lip, trembling.

Precia did have a point…nowhere in the books Vivio read mentioned why it was bad to try and bring back the dead. All the literature seemed to agree that it was an impossibility, and most attempts had been a mixture of superstitious rituals mixed with sacrifices. But if Precia was right…if Al-Hazard technology could really revive Alicia without harming anyone…then was that the right thing to do?

It took every ounce of Nanoha’s persuasive skills to get Fate to agree to retire for the night to her quarters. Neither she nor Chrono wanted to make it an order, since all that would do is load more anxiety and conflicting feelings on Fate, so Nanoha had slowly and persuasively coaxed Fate into getting some rest to be ready for a rescue mission.

She was glad that Chrono had Amy call her.

“Fate-chan, I’m kind of tired…join me?” Nanoha held up the covers to Fate’s bunk, having already curled up under the blankets and was propping herself up on one arm. The bed hadn’t quite been made with two people in mind, but they’d manage somehow.

Fate hesitated, pausing in her pacing. She had changed into—more like Nanoha had changed her into—casual clothes, but held herself rigid enough to still be in uniform. Apprehension flickered in her red eyes, and Nanoha fought to keep herself from blushing when she realized why Fate was hesitating; blushing would probably accidentally confirm Fate’s thoughts! Nanoha tried to inject the warmest, most comforting and platonic tones into her voice as she elaborated, “I’m worried about you, Fate-chan—I think you could use some sleep. Please?”

Fate bit her lip, then sighed and walked over, letting Nanoha cuddle her close and stroke her hair. Without Nanoha’s asking, Raising Heart dimmed the lights down before flying to rest beside Bardiche on the bedside shelf.

They lay there in the dim room, silent.

“…Fate-chan? Do you want to talk about it?”

A sigh. “About what part?”

“Any part you want.”

“…”

“…”

“I know that I shouldn’t think this way…but I keep asking myself: What did I do wrong?” A wet tear dripped onto Nanoha’s neck as Fate sniffed, laying her cheek on Nanoha’s shoulder. “Why did Mother love Alicia and that clone, but not me?”

Nanoha wordlessly began rubbing Fate’s back as the blonde trembled.

“Why didn’t Mother try to find me, if she had realized that it was alright to love someone other than Alicia-nee-san? Instead, she…she made herself another daughter to love. Nanoha, I would have forgiven Mother. I already have.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Why did she call her Fate? I’ve been thinking and thinking about that, and I just don’t know. Mother…she had said that she hated me. She didn’t want to call me after Alicia, who she loved. But then why did she name her after me?”

“Maybe…” Nanoha paused, not sure if she should be speculating or not. “Maybe Precia wanted to be reminded of you.” She left it at that—knowing her own feelings towards Precia, Nanoha would probably extrapolate a more negative interpretation. That wasn’t what Fate needed at the moment.

“Nanoha,” whispered Fate.

“Yes?” she answered just as softly.

“If…if I had been her…if I had known that Mother had wanted the Jewel Seeds to try and save Alicia…”

“…For my sister? If I had known, Nanoha…” Fate pushed herself up slightly so that they were looking at each other, her eyes a deep black-red in the darkness. “I would have done anything in my power to get those Jewel Seeds. Even if it meant…fighting anyone who tried to stop me. I probably would have hurt you, Nanoha. And I wouldn’t have cared.”

“You would have cared,” Nanoha said, brushing some blonde locks behind Fate’s ear. “Even if you had known about Alicia, you’re a good person, Fate-chan.”

“I don’t know,” Fate said in a small voice, her tone shaky. “If I had failed Mother, failed Alicia-nee-san…right and wrong wouldn’t have…mattered…”

“I believe in you.” Nanoha reached out in the dark and clasped Fate’s hand. “I believe in you, Fate.”

“Nanoha…if I was her…if I had grown up the way she lived, then I might not have taken your hand after all.” Fate bit her lip, shame etched into her face like a brand. “I might not have let myself try to see your side of things, if I’d had something so important to fight for.”

Nanoha repressed a shiver.

It was exactly that truth that had Fate dread what Vivio would be facing.

She didn’t need Fate to finish her confession. The haunted guilt in Fate’s eyes told it all.

If I had grown up with Mother loving me…

For my family…

…I would do anything they needed of me.

**O**

Vivio didn’t know how to answer.

So she dodged the question by asking one of her own. “Do you really think that it’s best for Alicia to bring her back? What if…you’re the one who needs her more?”

Precia drew herself back, affronted. “This has never been about me,” she practically hissed, her body twitching in agitation. “Alicia didn’t deserve to suffer for my mistakes! She was just a girl…I would do anything to have traded my life for hers…” Sadness flooded into Precia’s voice, and Vivio knew for certain that it was not an act. “I lived my years, made my choices…but Alicia had her choices taken from her. I will get them back for her.”

It shouldn’t be right…what Precia was doing just couldn’t be the right thing to do. It was against the law. But…even though her Nanoha-mama had always told Vivio to be a good, responsible citizen, undoubtedly Nanoha had taught her that doing the right thing was more important than worrying about whether it was against the rules or not. All of Vivio’s aunts and uncles seemed to live by the same philosophy—Nanoha-mama had shown her way to all of them before.

Surely, giving a young girl another chance at life had to be the right thing to do?

Didn’t Nanoha-mama give Fate-mama that same chance, fourteen years ago?

Vivio saw Precia smile, and she realized that her wavering conviction was probably written all over her face. Quickly she schooled her expression, but too late.

“Now that Fate has gotten us the Jewel Seed we need,” Precia said, waving a hand at the clone sitting on the floor, “All we need to do is find the correct method to infuse the Jewel into Alicia’s body.” A small coughing fit interrupted Precia, making Fate spring to her feet and quickly pour a glass of water for her mother. Precia gave her a small smile and drank, letting her breathing ease.

Vivio quickly sat back down—she had jumped up too when Precia had started coughing.

“Thank you, dear,” Precia patted Fate’s head, and the blonde smiled, her whole face lighting up. However, concern still shone in Fate’s eyes as she took the glass back from Precia’s trembling hand.

“This is absolutely critical—my poor Alicia…” Precia fixed her eyes on Alicia’s tank, the sickly pale light emitting from the glass casting a greenish glow across Precia’s face. “It’s been too long…We must make it work. I won’t get another chance.”

“From…” Vivio paused, trying to wet her dry mouth. “From what I’ve read about the Jewel Seeds, they fulfill the wishes of a living animal or person. I don’t think it would quite work for Alicia, since she’s…well…dead.”

“Yes,” Precia agreed bitterly. “But the theory should still be sound…the release of power from an invoked Lost Logia should be more than enough to provide the kind of magic needed to provide a new life. But I don’t think that there’s been a case of a Jewel Seed successfully merging with a human.”

Vivio frowned, working the problem over in her head. “I’ve never heard of any either, but it’s happened with Relics.”

“Relics?”

“Yeah. They’re Lost Logia too, but they’re compatible with people.” Vivio shivered, looking down. The memories were still fresh, even if most of the terror had been in her past. “Jail Scaglietti had told Lutecia-chan that the right Relic could revive Megane-san, who had been in a coma. Well, he might have been lying to her though…”

“But I assume that it hadn’t actually been done before?” Precia asked, sighing in disappointment.

“Well, actually, it has,” Vivio told her. “During the JS Incident, Jail…” She gripped Kris tighter and took a breath. “Jail had put one inside me, so that I could power the Saint’s Cradle for him. It…hurt a lot. But he did do it, and I think he did it to Lutecia-chan too.”

Precia went still. “You had a Lost Logia placed inside of you…successfully?”

A chill went down Vivio’s spine. “Um…yes,” she said tentatively.

But Precia wasn’t looking at her any longer, having rose from the couch and was pacing in a limping, twitchy manner. Fate was clearly worried, but she didn’t seem to dare break her mother’s concentration on something.

“I see, I see…the girl has made it all so clear now…perhaps my method had been wrong…Relic or Jewel Seed, they are both Lost Logia, so maybe it isn’t the source but the way…” Precia’s hands quivered as she spoke to herself, clutching at her chest as if trying to contain her excitement or another coughing fit. “That may be why my previous attempts have all failed…not a matter of the human subjects, or the Jewel serial number, but my procedure was faulty…but how to correct it? A prototype, yes…” Precia stopped, her gray hair hanging in long limp strands before her face. Then she tilted her head, her purple eyes peering brightly through her hair straight at Vivio. “Yes…I should examine a specimen where the procedure was successful…”

Bam! Vivio tripped backwards over her chair, sprawling over the arm and rolling to her feet, putting space between herself and the eagerly watching Precia. “W…What?” she stammered nervously. “Precia-san…”

“No, I think I’ll pass, sorry,” Vivio gulped. She stepped back involuntarily, and only realized that her retreating towards the door would probably set Precia off after the fully crazed fury exploded in Precia’s gaze.

“How dare you defy your grandmother!” Precia screamed, her staff materializing in her right hand. “Come back here at once!”

Fate had already been in her Barrier Jacket, so in the time that it took Vivio’s Barrier Jacket to fully form Fate had already took to the air, brandishing Bardiche.
“Arc Saber.”

Vivio tucked and rolled, letting the yellow blade arc over her and strike the wall. She charged straight for Fate, leaping into the air herself. Dodging two sets of lightning binds, Vivio attacked with a flurry of punches, hitting Fate’s auto-shield with some hits and being parried by Bardiche’s staff with others.

“Photon Lancer.”

Vivio closed in again, getting behind the forming energy spheres and so making Fate’s attack useless. Unlike her Fate-mama’s upgraded Plasma Lancer, Vivio knew that the shots from Photon Lancer only travelled in one direction, so she got in close and struck Fate with her armoured fists.

“Accel Smash!”

Fate yelped when Vivio slugged her in the stomach, barely twisting out of Vivio’s next attack and diving towards the floor. The room wasn’t large enough for Fate to loop her, so Vivio followed, cutting Fate off and launching a kick that nearly tore Bardiche out of her opponent’s hands.

Fate was going to rush her, get in close to use her scythe. With Alicia’s tank and Precia so close, there was no way Fate would risk using a shooting spell. Vivio could use that to her advantage.

Just as Vivio expected, Fate blitzed towards Vivio, Bardiche’s scythe form carving upwards towards her face. Vivio made a sharp crescent turn and thrust out one gauntleted hand.

A close range shot should neutralize her!

“DIVINE BUSTER!”

Fate immediately dodged, but the shot wouldn’t have hit her anyway.

Fate’s Sonic Move had moved her faster than Vivio had estimated. Her Divine Buster shot behind Fate’s fluttering cape, shredding the edge into black and red strips.

But the beam kept going.

Even this short range version had more than enough space in the small room to keep going at full power.

“No!” Precia and Vivio screamed.

The rainbow beam struck Alicia’s tank—and promptly exploded in a cloud of glass and fluid and smoke.

Another awesome chapter; can't wait to see how it ends.

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No flames for the unintentional NanoFate scene please! It just...happened , but it fit so I left it in. Besides, it's not like I made any conclusive statement about the exact nature of their relationship anyway, right?

HOW DARE YOU?!?!?!?!

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Chapter 4 may take me a bit of time; it depends on if I get talked out of certain nefarious plans I might have for editing the last chapter, hehehe ....(j/k, but I'm not very happy with it, so I'll need to do intensive editing and I won't have much time for it this week. I'll do my best!

I didn't, no. I haven't added anything to it that that the manga hasn't. I did have Nanoha preserve inertia during a Flash Step, but that was my own interpretation of a possibility. Although when Erio uses a Sonic Move to bounce up the escalator and catch Caro, there seems to be some inertia left over that sends them both to the ground. However, not sure that would be classified as a teleport, although they seem to classify all such spells in the more nebulous "movement magic" category.

Currently evaluating a few different ideas for the scene. I'm still working under the assumption the Hucks do use magic, so Deville's spell would be magical, and that Vivio could use her own magic to interfere and prevent it from happening, due to holding onto him. I'd be working under the assumption that Deville isn't as quite as advanced as Yuuno to forcibly teleport someone against their will if they are strong enough to resist.

Noted. I was considering that whether the spell preserves inertia or not has tactical implications to be taken into account.

I'm especially proud of the Hayate/Chrono scene. That's exactly what I imagined. Neither of them would be like that to each other if they didn't care.

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Originally Posted by deathcurse

Blood Calls To Blood

Chapter 3

This one just gets more and more interesting. I do think Vivio's a little more talkative than she should be about things that are kinda private, though. Maybe have Precia attempt to coax it out of her?

And am I the only one completely skeeved out by the IMightBeNice!Precia or NiceForAGoal!Precia?

"I don't get it..." Kyouya looked at Luna as she tried to help Arisa out. "I thought the gods were supposed to like positive emotions more than negative ones."

Luna shrugged, ignoring the way that Kyouya flushed slightly as her breasts shifted under her shirt. "Emotions are just that, emotions. Some gods find negative ones more interesting than positive ones. The energy behind the emotion is what Shinzoku and Mazoku feed off of." She chuckled as Arisa yelped as the floor started to smolder. "Take it easy, you can't force it to do what you want, you have to work with it."

"Easy for you to say! You're not the one who's trying to burn the house down."

Luna shook her head in amusement. "Listen, Arisa, you need to learn control. Calm down and don't force it or you'll never control it."

Arisa frowned, the flames on her arm started to get brighter. "How the heck can anyone control something without forcing it to do what you want it to do?!"

"There's the problem, it doesn't want to be controlled, you want it to do something, but if it won't work with you, it will likely consume you." Luna shrugged as Arisa paled. "Just calm down, you can't force it to abate, you need to feel how it moves and flows." Arisa nodded and closed her eyes, trying to breath.

"I'm still a little confused about one thing." Kyouya scratched his head in confusion. "I thought magic was supposed to be able calling up power and then making it form into what you wanted it to become before using it. But this, you're supposed to work with it? I really don't understand."

Luna chuckled at his look. "It's alright, it is confusing. Most magic does work the way you described. If I was to give an example..." Luna trailed off as she thought about how to describe it. "Alright, let's try this. Imagine a running river, okay?" Kyouya and Arisa both nodded. "The flowing water is a person's magic. Normally, you force the water to stop, bend, freeze or boil and it listens to you."

"Is there a draw-back?" Kyouya asked, getting a shrug from Luna.

"Not really. At its base, all magic is energy. However, most magic is only useful to you if you have a lot of talent and raw power. It's why, sometimes, a beginner magic user is better than a veteran."

"Because they have more power and probably as much talent." Kyouya nodded to her. "Okay, that's making sense, what's the difference with Holy magic?"

"You don't need as much power nor talent to get the same effect."

"HUH?!" Arisa looked at Luna, who smirked at her.

"To use the river reference again, where you would force it to do what you want normally, with Holy magic, you're actually surrounded by the water, moving with it." She slowly moved her left arm back before pushing it forward. "As you move, the water moves with you."

"Holy magic... Is an extension of yourself, isn't it?"

Luna nodded at Kyouya. "Yes. You need to listen and feel it to understand it fully." She shrugged at him. "It's a bit hard to explain, but since Holy magic can be thought of as the forces of nature itself, you can't control when it will rain, snow or the sun will shine, but you can work with it."

Arisa blinked at that and closed her eyes before gasping as the fire finally put itself out. "Hey, I did it!"

Arisa looked down and yelped, blushing as her shirt was burned off enough to reveal her naked body underneath.

Kyouya looked up and away. "I'll get some extra shirts of Miyuki's that she can't wear anymore. They're too big or too ratty for Nanoha right now, but for training, it's probably for the best."

Several minutes later...

Arisa panted, sweat drenching her forehead as she flopped onto her back. "Ugh, what's wrong?! I thought this stuff worked with excitement, you said so!"

Luna laughed at her. "You're trying to force it for one, and for two, that emotion is all you need to wake it up, after that, you need to learn how to call it up freely without forcing everything." Hearing Arisa groan, she rolled her eyes. "Hey, at least you have a teacher. When I first woke up Cephied's power, I was glowing in the dark for a week and all my clothes were turned into ash. Let me tell you, walking around naked outside in the cold wasn't very fun."

Arisa sweat-dropped. "Uh huh..?"

"Anyway, get back to working at it." Luna smirked at Arisa's wide-eyed expression. "You're not dead or out cold, you're going to work at it until you can call that power up and cancel it freely."

(---)

Walking by the dojo, Lina just shook her head. "Now if that doesn't bring back memories, I don't know what does." Oh well, Arisa would survive, Luna wouldn't hurt her permanently, but by the time that Luna was done, Arisa would likely just want to stay in bed for the next week.

"Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger as sis used to say." Lina chuckled to herself as she slid the door open and dropped off the extra shirts for Arisa to wear. "Kyouya said that he didn't want to walk in and see Arisa completely naked."

Arisa just groaned as she watched Lina leave the room as silently as she came in. "Ugh..."

"Get back to work!" Luna snapped at her, getting a yelp from the girl.

Later that night...

Arisa groaned as she was put down on the couch.

"How'd she do?" Shiro asked from his chair, getting a chuckle from Luna.

"Oh, she did fine, really... I figure that in a few days she won't even need my coaching to get stuff done." Luna chuckled as Arisa twitched on the couch. "That was fun." She looked at Lina, who was asleep on Shiro's lap, and sighed softly. "I don't know who's more lucky, you or her."

Shiro shrugged and picked his wife up. "I'm going to be heading to bed."

Watching them leave, Luna sat down on the other chair and sighed softly.

Who knew having kids and a husband would make her little sister so happy?

"I don't get it..." Kyouya looked at Luna as she tried to help Arisa out. "I thought the gods were supposed to like positive emotions more than negative ones."

Luna shrugged, ignoring the way that Kyouya flushed slightly as her breasts shifted under her shirt. "Emotions are just that, emotions. Some gods find negative ones more interesting than positive ones. The energy behind the emotion is what Shinzoku and Mazoku feed off of." She chuckled as Arisa yelped as the floor started to smolder. "Take it easy, you can't force it to do what you want, you have to work with it."

"Easy for you to say! You're not the one who's trying to burn the house down."

Luna shook her head in amusement. "Listen, Arisa, you need to learn control. You can't force it to do what you want, you need to have it work with you."

Arisa frowned, the flames on her arm started to get brighter. "How the heck can anyone control something without forcing it to do what you want it to do?!"

"There's the problem, it doesn't want to be controlled, you want it to do something, but if it won't work with you, it will likely consume you." Luna shrugged as Arisa paled. "Just calm down, you can't force it to abate, you need to feel how it moves and flows." Arisa nodded and closed her eyes, trying to breath.

"I'm still a little confused about one thing." Kyouya scratched his head in confusion. "I thought magic was supposed to be able calling up power and then making it form into what you wanted it to become before using it. But this, you're supposed to work with it? I really don't understand."

Luna chuckled at his look. "It's alright, it is confusing. Most magic does work the way you described. If I was to give an example..." Luna trailed off as she thought about how to describe it. "Alright, let's try this. Imagine a running river, okay?" Kyouya and Arisa both nodded. "The flowing water is a person's magic. Normally, you force the water to stop, bend, freeze or boil and it listens to you."

"Is there a draw-back?" Kyouya asked, getting a shrug from Luna.

"Not really. At its base, all magic is energy. However, most magic is only useful to you if you have a lot of talent and raw power. It's why, sometimes, a beginner magic user is better than a veteran."

"Because they have more power and probably as much talent." Kyouya nodded to her. "Okay, that's making sense, what's the difference with Holy magic?"

"You don't need as much power nor talent to get the same effect."

"HUH?!" Arisa looked at Luna, who smirked at her.

"To use the river reference again, where you would force it to do what you want normally, with Holy magic, you're actually surrounded by the water, moving with it." She slowly moved her left arm back before pushing it forward. "As you move, the water moves with you."

"Holy magic... Is an extension of yourself, isn't it?"

Luna nodded at Kyouya. "Yes. You need to listen and feel it to understand it fully." She shrugged at him. "It's a bit hard to explain, but since Holy magic can be thought of as the forces of nature itself, you can't control when it will rain, snow or the sun will shine, but you can work with it."

Arisa blinked at that and closed her eyes before gasping as the fire finally put itself out. "Hey, I did it!"

Arisa looked down and yelped, blushing as her shirt was burned off enough to reveal her naked body underneath.

Kyouya looked up and away. "I'll get some extra shirts of Miyuki's that she can't wear anymore. They're too big or too ratty for Nanoha right now, but for training, it's probably for the best."

Several minutes later...

Arisa panted, sweat drenching her forehead as she flopped onto her back. "Ugh, what's wrong?! I thought this stuff worked with excitement, you said so!"

Luna laughed at her. "You're trying to force it for one, and for two, that emotion is all you need to wake it up, after that, you need to learn how to call it up freely without forcing everything." Hearing Arisa groan, she rolled her eyes. "Hey, at least you have a teacher. When I first woke up Cephied's power, I was glowing in the dark for a week and all my clothes were turned into ash. Let me tell you, walking around naked outside in the cold wasn't very fun."

Arisa sweat-dropped. "Uh huh..?"

"Anyway, get back to working at it." Luna smirked at Arisa's wide-eyed expression. "You're not dead or out cold, you're going to work at it until you can call that power up and cancel it freely."

(---)

Walking by the dojo, Lina just shook her head. "Now if that doesn't bring back memories, I don't know what does." Oh well, Arisa would survive, Luna wouldn't hurt her permanently, but by the time that Luna was done, Arisa would likely just want to stay in bed for the next week.

"Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger as sis used to say." Lina chuckled to herself as she slid the door open and dropped off the extra shirts for Arisa to wear. "Kyouya said that he didn't want to walk in and see Arisa completely naked."

Arisa just groaned as she watched Lina leave the room as silently as she came in. "Ugh..."

"Get back to work!" Luna snapped at her, getting a yelp from the girl.

Later that night...

Arisa groaned as she was put down on the couch.

"How'd she do?" Shiro asked from his chair, getting a chuckle from Luna.

"Oh, she did fine, really... I figure that in a few days she won't even need my coaching to get stuff done." Luna chuckled as Arisa twitched on the couch. "That was fun." She looked at Lina, who was asleep on Shiro's lap, and sighed softly. "I don't know who's more lucky, you or her."

Shiro shrugged and picked his wife up. "I'm going to be heading to bed."

Watching them leave, Luna sat down on the other chair and sighed softly.

Who knew having kids and a husband would make her little sister so happy?

A harsh task mistress is Luna Inverse. At least it will keep Arissa alive I guess.
I probably should have said this after the last chapter but "Vessel of the Blue Dragon" Arissa well, best character introduction for like... 100 parts. The only one that matched that was Chaos!Nanoha back in A's.

__________________

"The eyes are the windows that let us gaze upon the soul"

"When desperate there are two choices: Lock shields for the last stand or draw your sword for the final charge"

"There are no winners or losers, there are only the living and the dead."

“The Covenant network is in absolute chaos. From what I’ve been able to piece together, their leadership ordered all ships to abandon Halo when they found the Flood, but they were too late. The Flood overwhelmed the Truth & Reconciliation and disabled it. The Covenant are terrified that the Flood will repair the ship and use it to escape from Halo. They’ve sent in a Special-Ops strike team to repair the ship for immediate departure. …I’ve got a good lock on Captain Keyes’ CNI transponder signal. He’s alive, and the implants are intact! There’s some interference from the battlecruiser’s damaged reactor. I’ll bring us in as close as I can.”

Cross Mirage detected and corrected the error in Cortana’s teleportation coordinates, and thus the two Spartans rematerialized right-side-up instead of with their feet planted on the ceiling. They looked around, spotting loose panels, sparking wires, smoldering flames, and splotches of blood of every color. The TACMAP that Mirage’s scan had provided during their previous raid on the ship revealed that they were currently very near the ship’s bridge, and the transponder signal showed that the Captain was at the bridge. Unfortunately, all nearby doors were locked, and they would have to take the long way around. Suddenly, a voice came over the radio, low and in pain.

“Chief… don’t be a fool. …Leave me…”

“Captain? Captain?!” Silence greeted Cortana’s call. “I’ve lost him.”

They passed through a door ahead, spotting a Grunt being chased by an armless Flood Combat Form. They went left and scavenged some plasma grenades from a dead Elite, and then turned around to follow the chase. They found a trio of Grunts trying to fend off two Combat Forms. One Grunt fell to a CF’s shotgun, and the Chief threw a frag grenade that killed the four remaining. A Carrier Form rounded the corner, and came apart under a hail of gunfire, its Infection Forms dying quickly as well. The duo followed the hallway until they reached a doorway to the hangar. Unfortunately, a massive hole blocked their entrance; whatever caused it had blasted through the entirety of the ship’s hull, and pools of green coolant could be seen far below outside.

As they turned to find another way, several Flood dropped through a hole in the ceiling ahead, while several more came around the corner. The Spartans opened fire, blasting anything that got close with their shotguns, but the Flood seemed to be endless.

“Master,” Cross Mirage said, “I suggest taking the plunge through the hole into the coolant below, and reentering the ship through its gravity lift. Scans show that our current location has no available access to the bridge, but there is a path – complicated though it may be – currently open from the gravity-lift hangar to the bridge.”

The Spartan pair ran to the edge, crossed their fingers, and jumped. A few seconds later, they fell into a pool of coolant, the properties of the coolant and their energy shields protecting them from harm. They waded their way up and out, their VISRs giving them a clear image of the situation. Nearby, Combat Forms and Elites traded fire. As soon as the CFs went in close, John & Teana both tossed a frag grenade; the twin explosions ripped through the two factions of enemies, leaving only a single wounded Elite alive, and he was killed quickly by four assault rifle shots. They passed through a narrow canyon pass, and came across another larger area, lit by the highly reflective (or perhaps luminescent) large pool of coolant nearby. On the left, two Elites and two Grunts on the ground traded fire with a trio of Combat Forms perched on a narrow ledge to the right. A plasma grenade from the Chief dealt with the Combat Forms, and they then engaged the Covenant, the Chief using his assault rifle to take down the Grunts and an Elite, while Teana blew the other Elite’s head off with Mirage Shotgun. Three more Combat Forms charged in from the passage up ahead, and were laid low by the Spartans, who then continued through the passage.

As they were moving through, a Carrier Form dropped down in front of them from above, detonating on impact. The blast wave drained their shields by about one-fourth, and assault rifle fire from the Chief dealt with the Infection Forms. Three Carrier Forms and two Combat Forms later, they reached a small ledge overlooking another battle. Below and ahead, three red-armored Elites and two Hunters traded fire with a small horde of Combat Forms. Teana grabbed an SRS99C rifle that was lying nearby, and used it to kill the Hunters before she discarded it. The Flood continued to press forward toward the Elites, several of them crawling out of the small lake of coolant.

“The ship has sustained more damage than I expected” Cortana said. “Analyzing… Coolant leakage rate is significant; the ship’s reactor should have already had a meltdown by now. Perhaps the Covenant’s reactor technology has more efficient coolant systems than ours, or maybe their reactors are simply capable of taking more heat build-up for longer than UNSC reactors.”

After a few minutes, the battle died down, the last Elite falling, while only four Combat Forms remained. They hopped down and waded to dry land, killing the wounded Combat Forms and continuing through another rock passage. In the next area, an old-model Shade manned by a Grunt, along with two other Grunts and a blue-armored Elite, opened fire on a pack of Combat Forms coming around the corner ahead. The Flood were cut down by the combined plasma fire, and just as the Covenant relaxed a frag grenade from the Chief blew them all to hell. The Spartans moved on, rounding the corner and working through another group of Combat Forms supported by Infection Forms, dropping down the ledge when they were through. They moved through and encounter yet another Elite-led group of Grunts confronting a pack of Combat and Carrier Forms, but this time the Flood won. A plasma grenade picked up from off the ground cleared out most of them, and shots from Mirage Rifle dealt with the Combat Forms perched on the ledges above. Teana then grabbed a needler from the dead Grunt, along with several ammo crystals for it, clipping it to her hip.

They passed through another canyon passage, killing another pack of Infection Forms, and finally they reached the gravity lift. Atop a rock plateau, at the lift’s base, a force of Covenant Special-Ops made a desperate defense against multiple waves of Flood forms. The Spartans fought their way up, and when they reached the top they did something unexpected: they opened fire on the Flood while leaving the Elites alone, even moving to fill in a hole in the Spec-Ops soldiers’ defense. Over the next few minutes, the impromptu alliance fended off the waves of Flood, until finally the gravity lift hoisted them all up into the ship.

Upstairs, Downstairs

“We should be able to get to the ship’s control room from here” Cortana said. John and the Elite leader simply shared a silent look, and the Elites then went off on their own, heading toward engineering, while the Spartans turned and started toward the bridge. They moved through a few hallways, soon reaching coming out on the top level of a two-level storage room.

They tossed a few grenades to clear out the Flood below, and then leapt down, their shields absorbing the landing. They entered another hallway and followed it, reaching a hole that had been built into the floor, and from which the next level down could be seen. John dropped a plasma grenade to kill the three Carrier Forms below, and then a frag grenade to kill the Infection Forms. They dropped down, turning right a little ways ahead to find another Flood vs. Covenant fight. The two Spartans had popped up behind the Flood, and a few 40mm grenades from Mirage Rifle thinned them out, with some rifle fire taking care of the rest. They moved on and encounter two Elites – one Minor and one Major – and three Grunts – all Major. They were clustered together, so Teana hefted the rocket launcher she still carried and fired a rocket, blowing them all to hell. They moved on, and soon reached a hangar.

“We should be able to reach the control room from the third floor” Cortana said.

“I… gave you an order, soldier” Keyes’ voice came over the comm., slurred and strained. “Now pull out!”

“He’s delirious!” Cortana shouted. “In pain! We have to help him!”

They hurried along the second floor, reaching an outcropping holding an old-model Shade manned by an Elite. They rushed past, avoiding an unnecessary skirmish, and entered the next hallway. They found a quartet of Grunts running toward them, running away from a group of Combat and Carrier Forms. Teana fired a rifle grenade over the Grunts’ heads, hitting the Flood and triggering the Carriers’ detonations, which killed the Combat Forms. Full-auto fire popped the Infection Forms. The Chief gestured toward the exit, and the Grunts wisely passed them and headed into the hangar. The Spartans moved on, going up a level and using a pair of plasma grenades to take out another group of Combat and Infection Forms. They came out at the third level of the hangar, just as a Phantom flew in and dropped off a team of Special-Ops Covenant troopers. They turned right, following a NAV point, throwing a few plasma grenades to kill the Combat Forms waiting up ahead. They entered this next hallway, making a few more turns and reaching a hallway bordering the control room.

The Captain

An agonized groan came over the radio, horrible, barely human.

“The Captain! His vitals are fading! Please, we have to hurry!”

Ahead, a team of Covenant was overrun by a large force of Combat Forms. The two Spartans waded in, shotguns blazing, and carved a path to the control room, leaving a trail of spent shotgun shell casings behind them. Finally, they entered the control room.

At the central podium, a massive, bloated Flood form ‘stood’, apparently looking at the control panels. Tendrils anchored it to the walls and ceiling. Six tendrils stretched to the floor. Only, on closer inspection, the floor tendrils were legs. Four were Elite legs, and… Teana looked at the creature, noticing a shape in the side… and then recoiled in absolute horror. John followed her eyes… and suddenly felt a mixture of horror and nausea as he recognized the shape of Captain Jacob Keyes’ face, embedded in the side of the creature and frozen in an expression of agony. He had been completely absorbed by the Flood Brain Form.

“We…” Cortana struggled out, still in shock. “We can’t let the Flood get off this ring. You know what he’d expect… what he’d want us to do.”

John nodded, and drew his hand back. Teana turned her head away, flinching at the horrible, sickening crunch as John punched his way into the Captain’s skull, reaching through a half-dissolved/eaten brain and grabbing hold of the neural implant. He yanked it out, shaking the gore off of it, and slotted it into his helmet.

“It’s done” Cortana said lowly and solemnly. “I have the code. …We should go.”

Teana took out a trio of plasma grenades, carefully wedged them into the disgusting creature’s body, and set them to remote detonation. She saw something by her foot, bent down, and picked up the Captain’s old-style pipe. She placed it in subspace storage, along with the box containing Noble Team’s dog-tags. She and the Chief looked at each other, and then he put his hand on her shoulder.

“We need to get back to the Pillar of Autumn” Cortana said. “Let’s go back to the hangar and find a ride.”

Suddenly, as if summoned by the hideous creature, Flood Combat Forms began to pour into the room. The Spartans took advantage of the fact that they were on a raised platform with only a single, narrow way onto it, and that the Flood had to funnel their way toward them. But soon enough, the presence of Combat Forms wielding weapons forced them to drop off the back of the platform, which turned out to be good since the bottom floor had so much more room to maneuver in. Further good fortune came as a door on the left opened, and from it came a team of Covenant Special-Ops, who did not see the Spartans and who the Flood turned to focus on. Two Grunts opened fire with their fuel rod guns, blasting several Combat Forms into pieces, as the Elites charged forward with plasma swords and cut several more down. The black-armored team quickly managed to wipe out the Flood without losses, and as they crossed the room the two Spartans took their chance, running past them and out the door, hearing a surprised shout as an Elite spotted them, but chose not to give chase.

They quickly reached the hangar, and two Banshees flew in and settled on the first floor. They looked at each other, nodded, and sprinted out, blitzing past another Spec-Ops team and avoiding a few shots sent their way. They ran through a door to a hallway that led down to the bottom floor. Halfway down, they encountered three Grunts and a Hunter pair doing battle with some Flood. They continued past, avoiding detection. They fought their way down through a few Combat Forms and Elites, and soon reached the first floor. After a few seconds, they sprinted for the Banshees. Plasma bolts whizzed by them, a few impacting their shields, but they reached the two aircraft and climbed aboard, immediately boosting out and flying off into the night.

I have to admit, the NanoFate scene was one of the best parts of this chapter imo. And damn, Vivio is so screwed now. She's going to have to deal with double Unstoppable Rages. I just hope her Saint's Armor can hold up.